Animals the True and Proper Cause of Motion or the Determination thereof at least is not the Matter it self Organized but the Soul either as Cogitative or Plastickly-Self Active Vitally united thereunto and Naturally Ruling over it But in the whole World it is either God himsel◠Originally impressing a certain Quantity of Motion upon the Matter of the Universe and constantly conserving the same according to that of the Sripture In him we Live Move which seems to have been the Sence also of that Noble Agrigentine Poet and Philosopher when he described God to be only A Pure or Holy Mind that with swift thoughts agitates the whole World or else it is Instrumentally an Inferiour Created Spirit Soul or Life of Nature that is a Subordinate Hylarchical Principle which hath a Power of Moving Matter Regularly according to the Direction of a Superiour Perfect Mind And thus do we see again that Ignorance of Causes is the Seed of Atheism and not of Theism no Atheists being able to assign a true Cause of Motion the Knowledge whereof plainly leadeth to a God Furthermore those Atheists who acknowledge no other Principle of things but Sensless Matter Fortuitously moved must needs be Ignorant also of the Cause of that Grand Phaenomenon called by Aristotle the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Well and Fit in Nature that is of the most Artificial Frame of the whole Mundane System in General and of the Bodies of Animals in Particular together with the Conspiring Harmony of all For they who boasted themselves able to give Natural Causes of all things whatsoever without a God can give no other Cause at all of this Phaenomenon but only that the World Happened by Chance to be thus made as it is Now they who make Fortune and Chance to be the only Cause of this so Admirable Phaenomenon the most Regular and Artificial Frame and Harmony of the Vniverse they either make the meer Absence and Want of a Cause to be a Cause Fortune and Chance being nothing else but the Absence or want of an Intending Cause Or else do they make their own Ignorance of a Cause and They know not How to be a Cause as the Author of the Leviathan interprets the meaning hereof Many times saith he men put for Cause of Natural Events their own Ignorance but disguised in other words as when they say that Fortune is the Cause of things Contingent that is of things whereof they know no Cause Or they affirm against all Reason one Contrary to be the Cause of another as Confusion to be the Cause of Order Pulchritude and Harmony Chance and Fortune to be the Cause of Art and Skill Folly and Nonsence the Cause of the most Wise and Regular Contrivance Or Lastly they deny it to have any Cause at all since they deny an Intending Cause and there cannot Possibly be any other Cause of Artificialness and Conspiring Harmony than Mind and Wisdom Councel and Contrivance But because the Atheists here make some Pretences for this their Ignorance we shall not conceal any of them but bring them all to light to the end that we may discover their Weakness and Foolery First therefore they Pretend that the World is not so Artificially and Well made but that it might have been made much Better and that there are many Faults and Flaws to be found therein from whence they would infer that it was not made by a God he being supposed by Theists to be no Bungler but a Perfect Mind or a Being Infinitely Good and Wise who therefore should have made all things for the Best But this being already set down by it self as a Twelfth Atheistick Objection against a Deity we must reserve the Confutation thereof for its proper place Only we shall observe thus much here by the way That those Theists of Later times who either because they Fancy a meer Arbitary Deity or because their Faith in the Divine Goodness is but weak or because they Judge of things according to their own Private Appetites and Selfish Passions and not with a Free Uncaptivated Vniversality of Mind and an Impartial Regard to the Good of the Whole or because they look only upon the Present Scene of things and take not in the Future into consideration nor have a Comprehensive View of the whole Plot of Divine Providence together or lastly because we Mortals do all stand upon too Low a Ground to take a commanding view and Prospect upon the whole Frame of things and our shallow Understandings are not able to fathom the Depths of the Divine Wisdom nor trace all the Methods and Designs of Providence grant That the World might have been made much Better than now it is which indeed is all one as to say that it is Not Well made these Neoterick Christians I say seem hereby to give a much greater advantage to the Atheists than the Pagan Theists themselves heretofore did who stood their Ground and generously maintained against them that Mind being the Maker of all things and not Fortune or Chance nor Arbitary Self-will and Irational Humour Omnipotent the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is Absolutely the Best in every case so far as the Necessity of things would admit and in compliance with the Good of the Whole was the Measure and Rule both of Nature and Providence Again the Atomick Atheists further alledge that though there be many things in the world which serve well for Vses yet it does not at all follow that therefore they were made Intentionally and Designedly for those Vses because though things Happen by Chance to be so or so Made yet may they serve for something or other afterward and have their several Vses Consequent Wherefore all the things of Nature Happened say they by Chance to be so made as they are and their several Uses notwithstanding were Consequent or Following thereupon Thus the Epicurean Poet Nil ideo natum est in Corpore ut Vti Possemus sed quod Natum est id procreat Vsum. Nothing in mans Body was made out of design for any Vse but all the several Parts thereof happening to be so made as they are their Vses were Consequent thereupon In like manner the Old Atheistick Philosophers in Aristotle concluded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Former Teeth were made by Material or Mechanical Necessity Thin and Sharp by means whereof they became fit for Cutting but the Jaw-Teeth Thick and Broad whereby they became Vseful for the Grinding of Food But neither of them were Intended to be such for the sake of these Vses but Happened by Chance only And the like concerning all the other Parts of the Body which seem to be made for Ends. Accordingly the same Aristotle represents the sence of those ancient Atheists concerning the other Parts of the Universe or Things of Nature that they were all likewise made such by the Necessity of Material or Mechanical Motions Vndirected and yet had nevertheless their several
Assert an Infinite Progress in the Causes of Motion according to Aristotle to assign no Cause thereof at all Epicurus though an Exploder of Qualities forced here to fly to an Occult Quality of Gravity Which as Absurd in Infinite Space and without any Centre of Rest so indeed nothing but to make his own Ignorance and He Knows not Why to be a Cause The Motion of Body from the Activity of something Incorporeal Though Motion taken for Translation be a Mode of Matter yet as it is taken for the Vis Movens a Mode or Energy of Something that is Incorporeal and Self-Active The Motion of the whole Corporeal Universe Originally from the Deity Thus the Ignorance of the Cause of Motion another Ground of Atheism Page 667 669 Thirdly The Atheists also Ignorant of the Cause of that Grand Phaenomenon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Regular and Artificial Frame of the Mundane System and of the Bodies of Animals together with the Harmony of all They who boast they can give Causes of all things without a God able to give no Cause of this but onely that it Happened by Chance so to be This either to make the Absence of a Cause a Cause Chance being but the Absence of an Intending Cause or their Own very Ignorance of the Cause and They Know not Why to be a Cause or to make One Contrary the Cause of Another Confusion of Order and Harmony Chance of Art and Skill or Lastly to deny it to have any Cause at all since they deny an Intending Cause Page 669 But here the Atheists make several Pretenâ—es for this their Ignorance First That the World is not so Well Made but that it might have been much Better and many Flaws to be found therein whereas a God or Perfect Being would have Bungled in Nothing but have made all things after the Best manner But this a Twelfth Athâ—istick Argumentation and the Confutation thereof to be expected afterward Reasons why some Modern Theists give Atheists so much advantage here as to acknowledge Things be Ill Made whilst the Ancient Pagan Theists stood their Ground and generously maintained that Mind being the Maker of all things and not Blind Fortune or Chance nor Arbitrary Will and Irrational Humane Omnipotent the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is Absolutely the Bâ—st in order to the Good of the Whole so far as the Necessity of things would admit the Measure and Rule of Nature and Providence Page 669 670 Again the Atomick and Epicurean Atheists Pretend That though many things serve for Uses yet it does not therefore folâ—ow that they were made Intentionally for those Uses because things that Happen by Chance may have Uses Consequent Thus Lucretius and the old Atheistick Philosophers before Aristotle of the Parts of the Bodies of Animals and all other things The Answer That when things consist of many Parts all Artificially Proportioned together with much Curiosity as for example the Eye no man who considers the Anatomy thereof and its whole Structure can reasonably conclude that it Happened so to be made and the Use of Seeing Followed but that it was made Intentionally for the Use of Seeing But to maintain that not onely Eyes Happened to be so made and the Use of Seeing Followed but also Ears and a Mouth and Feet and Hands and all the other parts Organical and Similar without any of which the Whole would be Inept or Vseless all their several Uses Vn-Intended following Gross Insensibility and Stupidity Galen of the Use of Parts Page 671 672 Democritus his Dotages Countenanced also by Cartesius His Book of Meteors first written with design to Salve all those Phaenomena without a God but Vnsuccessfully Nevertheless we acknowledge That God and Nature doe all things in the most Frugal and Compendious way and that the Mechanick Powers are taken in so far as they will serviceably comply with the Intellectual Platform But Nature not Mechanical and Fortuitous onely but also Vital and Artificial the Archeus of the whole World ibid. Again Atheists further Pretend That though it may well seem strange that Matter Fortuitously Moved should at the very First fall into such a Regularity and Harmony as is now in the World yet not at all strange that Atoms moving from all Eternity and making all manner of Combinations and Contexturâ—s and trying all Experiments should after innumerable other Inept and Discongruous Forms at length fall into such a System as This. They say therefore That the Earth at first brought forth divers Monstrous and Irregular Shapes of Animals some wanting Feet some Hands some without a Mouth c. to which the Ancients added Centaurs Scylla's and Chimaera's mixtly Boviform and Hominiform Animals Though Epicurus ashamed to own these would seem to exclude them but without Reason But because we have now no such Irregular Shapes Produced out of the Earth they say that the Reason is because none could Continue and Propagate their kind by Generation but onely such as Happened to be fitly made Thus Epicurus and the Atheists before Aristotle They also adde hereunto their Infinite Worlds amongst which they Pretend not one of a Thousand or of Ten thousand hath so much Regularity in it as this of ours Lastly they Presage likewise that this World of ours shall not always continue such but after a while fall into Confusion and Disorder again and then may we have Centaurs Scylla's and Chimaera's as before Page 672 674 Nevertheless because this Universal and Constant Regularity of things for so many Ages together is so Puzzling they would perswade us that the Sensless Atoms Playing and Toying up and down from Eternity without any Care or Thought were at length Taught by the Necessity of things and driven to a kind of Trade or Habit of Artificialness and Methodicalness Page 674 675 To all which Atheistick Pretences Replied First That this an Idle Dream or Impudent Forgery That there was once an Inept Mundane System and in this World of ours all manner of Irregular Shapes of Animals not onely because no Tradition of any such thing but also because no Reason possibly to be given why such should not be Produced out of the Earth still though they could not Continue long That also Another Atheistick Dream That in this World of ours all will quickly fall into Confusion and Nonsense again And as their Infinite Worlds an Impossibility so their Assertion of the Irregularity of the supposed other Worlds well enough Answered by a Contrary Assertion That were every Planet a Habitable Earth and every Fixed Star a Sun having all more or fewer such Habitable Planets moving round about them and none of them Desert or Un-inhabited there would not be found so much as one Ridiculous or Inept System amongst them all the Divine Act being Infinite Page 675 Again That the Fortuitous Motions of Sensless Atoms should in length of Time grow Artificial and contract a Habit or Trade of Acting as Regularly as if directed
That the first Elements Fire water Air and Earth were all made by Nature and Chance without any Art or Method and then that the bodies of the Sun Moon and Stars and the whole Heavens were afterward made out of those Elements as devoid of all manner of Life and only fortuitously moved and mingled together and lastly that the whole Mundane System together with the orderly Seasons of the year as also Plants Animals and Men did arise after the same manner from the mere Fortuitous Motion of sensless and stupid Matter In the very same manner does Plato state this Controversie again betwixt Theists and Atheists in his Philebus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether shall we say O Protarchus that this whole Vniverse is dispensed ond ordered by a mere Irrational Temerarious and Fortuitous Principle and so as it happens or contrariwise as our fore-fathers have instructed us that Mind and a certain Wonderful Wisdom did at first frame and does still govern all things Wherefore we conclude that Plato took no notice of any other Form of Atheism as then set on foot than such as derives all things from a mere Fortuitous Principle from Nature and Chance that is the unguided Motion of Matter without any Plastick Artificialness or Methodicalness either in the whole Universe or the parts of it But because this kind of Atheism which derives all things from a mere Fortuitous Nature had been managed two manner of ways by Democritus in the way of Atoms and by Anaximander and others in the way of Forms and Qualities of which we are to speak in the next place therefore the Atheism which Plato opposes was either the Democritick or the Anaximandrian Atheism or else which is most probable both of them together IX It is hardly imaginable that there should be no Philosophick Atheists in the world before Democritus and Leucippus Plato long since concluded that there have been Atheists more or less in every Age when he bespeaks his young Atheist after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The full sence whereof seems to be this Neither you my Son nor your friends Democritus Leucippus and Protagoras are the first who have entertained this Opinion concerning the Gods but there have been always some more or less sick of this Atheistick Disease Wherefore we shall now make a diligent search and enquiry to see if we can find any other Philosophers who Atheized before Democritus and Leucippus as also what Form of Atheism they entertained Aristotle in his Metaphysicks speaking of the Quaternio of Causes affirms that many of those who first Philosophized assigned only a Material Cause of the whole Mundane System without either Intending or Efficient Cause The reason whereof he intimates to have been this because they asserted Matter to be the only Substance and that whatsoever else was in the World besides the substance or bulk of Matter were all nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 different Passions and Affections Accidents and Qualities of Matter that were all Generated out of it and Corruptible again into it the Substance of Matter always remaining the same neither Generated nor Corrupted but from Eternity unmade Aristotle's words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Most of those who first philosophized took notice of no other Principle of things in the Vniverse than what is to be referred to the Material Cause for that out of which all things are and out of which they are first made and into which they are all at last corrupted and resolved the Substance always remaining the same and being changed only in its Passions and Qualities This they concluded to be the first Original and Principle of all things X. But the meaning of these old Material Philosophers will be better understood by those Exceptions which Aristotle makes against them which are Two First that because they acknowledged no other Substance besides Matter that might be an Active Principle in the Universe it was not possible for them to give any account of the Original of Motion and Action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though all Generation be made never so much out of something as the Matter yet the question still is by what means this cometh to pass and what is the Active Cause which produceth it because the Subject-matter cannot change it self As for example neither Timber nor Brass is the cause that either of them are changed for Timber alone does not make a Bed nor Brass a Statue but there must be something else as the Cause of the Change and to enquire after this is to enquire after another Principle besides Matter which we would call that from whence Motion springs In which words Aristotle intimates that these old Material Philosopers shuffled in Motion and Action into the World unaccountably or without a Cause forasmuch as they acknowledged no other Principle of Things besides Passive Matter which could never move change or alter it self XI And Aristotle's second Exception against these old Material Philosophers is this that since there could be no Intending Causality in Sensless and Stupid Matter which they made to be the only Principle of all things they were not able to assign 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any Cause of Well and Fit and so could give no account of the Regular and Orderly Frame of this Mundane System 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That things partly are so well in the World and partly are made so well cannot be imputed either to Earth or Water or any other sensless Body much less is it reasonable to attribute so noble and Excellent an Effect as this to mere Chance or Fortune Where Aristotle again intimates that as these Material Philosophers shuffled in Motion into the world without a Cause so likewise they must needs suppose this Motion to be altogether Fortuitous and Unguided and thereby in a manner make Fortune which is nothing but the absence or defect of an Intending Cause to supply the room both of the Active and Intending Cause that is Efficient and Final Whereupon Aristotle subjoyns a Commendation of Anaxagoras as the first of the Ionick Philosophers who introduced Mind or Intellect for a Principle in the Universe that in this respect he alone seemed to be sober and in his wits comparatively with those others that went before him who talked so idly and Atheistically For Anaxagoras his Principle was such saith Aristotle as was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at once a cause of Motion and also of Well and Fit of all the Regularity Aptitude Pulchritude and Order that is in the whole Universe And thus it seems Anaxagoras himself had determined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anaxagoras saith that Mind is the only Cause of Right and Well this being proper to Mind to aim at Ends and Good and to order one thing Fitly for the sake of another Whence it was that Anaxagoras concluded Good also as well as Mind to have been a Principle of the Universe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
pass for a general Observation here that the Pagan Theology was all along Confounded with a certain Mixture of Physiology and Herology or History blended together Nevertheless it is unquestionable that the more intelligent of the Greekish Pagans did frequently understand by Zeus that Supreme Vnmade Deity who was the Maker of the World and of all the Inferiour Gods Porphyrius in Eusebius thus declares their sence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By Zeus the Greeks understand that Mind of the World which framed all things in it and containeth the whole World Agreeable whereunto is that of Maximus Tyrius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By Jupiter you are to understand that most Ancient and Princely Mind which all things follow and obey And Eusebius himself though not forward to grant any more than needs he must to Pagans concludes with this acknowledgment hereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let Jupiter therefore be no longer that Fiery and Ethereal Substance which the ancient Pagans according to Plutarch supposed him to be but that Highest Mind which was the Maker of all things But Phornutus by Jupiter understands the Soul of the World he writing thus concerning him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As we our selves are governed by a Soul so hath the World in like manner a Soul that containeth it and this is called Zeus being the Cause of Life to all things that live and therefore Zeus or Jupiter is said to reign over all things However though these were two different Conceptions amongst the Pagans concerning God some apprehending him to be an Abstract Mind separate from the World and Matter but others to be a Soul of the World only yet nevertheless they all agreed in this that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Jupiter was the Supreme Moderator or Governour of all And accordingly Plato in his Cratylus taking these Two Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both together etymologizeth them as one after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Two words compounded together declare the Nature of God for there is nothing which is more the Cause of Life both to our selves and all other Animals than He who is the Prince and King of all things so that God is rightly thus called He being that by whom all things Live And these are really but one Name of God though divided into Two Words But because it was very obvious then to object against this Position of Plato's that Zeus or Jupiter could not be the Prince of all things and First Original of Life from the Theogonia of Hesiod and other ancient Pagans in which himself was made to have been the Son of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Saturn therefore this Objection is thus preoccupated by Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whosoever shall hear this saith he will presently conclude it to be contumelious to this Zeus or Jupiter as he hath been described by us to be accounted the Son of Cronos or Saturn And in answer hereunto that Philosopher stretcheth his Wits to salve that Poetick Theogonia and reconcile it with his own Theological Hypothesis and thereupon he interprets that Hesiodian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Jupiter into a Compliance with the Third Hypostasis of his Divine Triad so as properly to signifie the Superiour Soul of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nevertheless it is reasonable to suppose Zeus or Jupiter to be the Off-spring of some Great Mind and Chronos or Saturn signifieth a pure and Perfect Mind Eternal who again is said to be the Son of Uranus or Coelius Where it is manifest that Plato endeavours to accommodate this Poetick Trinity of Gods Vranus Chronos and Zeus or Coelius Saturn and Jupiter to his own Trinity of Divine Hypostases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the First Good a Perfect Intellect and the Highest Soul Which Accommodation is accordingly further pursued by Plotinus in several places as Enn. 5. l. 1. c. 4. and Enn. 5. l. 8. c. 13. Nevertheless these Three Archical Hypostases of the Platonick Trinity though look'd upon as Substances distinct from each other and Subordinate yet are they frequently taken all together by them for the Whole Supreme Deity However the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by Plato severally attributed to each of them which Proclus thus observed upon the Timaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We say therefore that there are several Orders Ranks or Degrees of Zeus or Jupiter in Plato for sometimes he is taken for the Demiurgus or Opificer of the World as in Cratylus sometimes for the First of the Saturnian Triad as in Gorgias sometimes for the Superiour Soul of the World as in Phaedrus and lastly sometimes for the Lower Soul of the Heaven Though by Proclus his lieve that Zeus or Jupiter which is mentioned in Plato's Cratylus being plainly the Superiour Psyche or Soul of the World is not properly the Demiurgus or Opificer according to him that Title rather belonging to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Intellect which is the Second Hypostasis in his Trinity As for the Vulgar of the Greekish Pagans whether they apprehended God to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mind or Intellect separate from the World or else to be a Soul of the World only it cannot be doubted but that by the word Zeus they commonly understood the Supreme Deity in one or other of those sences the Father and King of Gods he being frequently thus stiled in their solemn Nuncupations of Vows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Jupiter Father and O Jupiter King As he was invoked also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that excellent Prayer of an ancient Poet not without cause commended in Plato's Alcibiades 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Jupiter King give us good things whether we pray or pray not for them but with-hold evil things from us though we should pray never so earnestly for them But the Instances of this kind being innumerable we shall forbear to mention any more of them Only we shall observe that Zeus Sabazius was a name for the Supreme God sometime introduced amongst the Greeks and derived in all probability from the Hebrew Sabaoth or Adonai Tsebaoth the Lord of Hosts that is of the Heavenly Hosts or the Supreme Governour of the World Which therefore Aristophanes took notice of as a strange and foreign God lately crept in amongst them that ought to be banish'd out of Greece these several Names of God being then vulgarly spoken of as so many distinct Deities as shall be more fully declared afterwards We shall likewise elsewhere show that besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also was used by the Greeks as a Name for that God who is the supreme Moderator and Governour of the whole World That the Latins did in like manner by Jupiter and Jovis frequently denote the Supreme Deity and Monarch of the Vniverse is a thing unquestionable and which does sufficiently appear from those Epithets that were commonly given
also inserted into their Almanacks or Ephemerides together with the times of their Risings and Settings and the Prognosticks or significations of future Events from them For he observed that those Egyptians who made the Sun the Demiurgus or Architect of the World interpreted the Stories of Isis and Osiris and all those other Religious Fables into nothing but Stars and Planets and the River Nile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and referred all things universally into Natural or Inanimate nothing into Incorporeal and Living Substances Which Passage of Porphyrius concerning Chaeremon we confess Eusebius lays great stress upon endeavouring to make advantage of it first against the Egyptians and then against the Greeks and other Pagans as deriving their Religion and Theology from them It is manifest from hence saith he that the very Arcane Theology of the Egyptians Deified nothing but Stars and Planets and acknowledged no Incorporeal Principle or Demiurgick Reason as the Cause of this Vniverse but only the Visible Sun And then he concludes in this manner See now what is become of this Arcane Theology of the Egyptians that deifies nothing but sensless Matter or Dead Inanimate Bodies But it is well known that Eusebius took all advantages possible to represent the Pagans to the worst and render their Theology ridiculous and absurd nevertheless what he here urgeth against the Egyptians is the less valuable because himself plainly contradicts it elsewhere declaring that the Egyptians acknowledged a Demiurgick Reason and Intellectual Architect of the World which consequently was the Maker of the Sun and confessing the same of the other Pagans also Now to affirm that the Egyptians acknowledged no other Deity than Inanimate Matter and the Sensless Corporeal World is not only to deny that they had any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any Arcane Theology at all which yet hath been sufficiently proved but also to render them absolute Atheists For if this be not Atheism to acknowledge no other Deity besides Dead and Sensless Matter then the word hath no signification Chaeremon indeed seems to impute this Opinion not to all the Egyptians but to some of them and it is very possible that there might be some Atheists amongst the Egyptians also as well as amongst the Greeks and their Philosophers And doubtless this Chaeremon himself was a kind of Astrological Atheist for which cause we conclude that it was not Chaeremon the Stoick from whom notwithstanding Porphyrius in his Book of Abstinence citeth certain other things concerning the Egyptians but either that Chaeremon whom Strabo made use of in Egypt or else some other of that name But that there ever was or can be any such Religious Atheists as Eusebius with some others imagine who though acknowledging no Deity besides Dead and Sensless Matter notwithstanding devoutly court and worship the same constantly invoking it and imploring its assistance as expecting great Benefit to themselves thereby This we confess is such a thing as that we have not Faith enough to believe it being a sottishness and contradictious Non-sence that is not incident to humane Nature Neither can we doubt but that all the devout Pagans acknowledged some Living and Vnderstanding Deities or other nor easily believe that they ever Worshipped any Inanimate or Sensless Bodies otherwise than as some way referring to the same or as Images and Symbols of them But as for that Passage in Porphyrius his Epistle concerning Chaeremon where he only propounds doubts to Anebo the Egyptian Priest as desiring further Information from him concerning them Jamblichus hath given us a full answer to it under the person of Abammo another Egyptian Priest which notwithstanding hath not hitherto been at all taken notice of because Ficinus and Scutellius not understanding the word Chaeremon to be a Proper name ridiculously turn'd it in their Translations Optarem and Gauderem thereby also perverting the whole sence The words in the Greek MS. now in the hands of my Learned Friend Mr. Gale run thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Chaeremon and those others who pretend to write of the first Causes of the World declare only the Last and Lowest Principles as likewise they who treat of the Planets the Zodiack the Decans the Horoscopes and the Robust Princes And those things that are in the Egyptian Almanacks or Ephemerides contain the least part of the Hermaical Institutions namely the Phases and Occultations of the Stars the Increase and Decrease of the Moon and the like Astrological Matters which things have the lowest place in the Egyptian Aetiology Nor do the Egyptians resolve all things into Sensles Nature but they distinguish both the Life of the Soul and the Intellectual Life from that of Nature and that not only in our selves but also in the Vniverse they determining Mind and Reason first to have existed of themselves and so this whole World to have been made Wherefore they acknowledge before the Heaven and in the Heaven a Living Power and place pure Mind above the World as the Demiurgus and Architect thereof From which Testimony of Jamblichus who was but little Juniour to Porphyrius and Contemporary with Eusebius and who had made it his business to inform himself thoroughly concerning the Theology of the Egyptians it plainly appears that the Egyptians did not generally suppose as Chaeremon pretended concerning some of them a Sensless Inanimate Nature to be the first Original of all things but that as well in the World as in our selves they acknowledged Soul superiour to Nature and Mind or Intellect superiour to Soul this being the Demiurgus of the World But we shall have afterwards occasion more opportunely to cite other Passages out of this Jamblichus his Egyptian Mysteries to the same purpose Wherefore there is no pretense at all to suspect that the Egyptians were universally Atheists and Anarchists such as supposed no Living Understanding Deity but resolved all into Sensless Matter as the first and highest Principle But all the question is whether they were not Polyarchists such as asserted a Multitude of Understanding Deities Self-existent or Unmade Now that Monarchy was an essential part of the Arcane and True Theology of the Egyptians A. Steuchus Eugubinus and many other learned men have thought to be unquestionably evident from the Hermetick or Trismegistick Writings they taking it for granted that these are all genuine and sincere Whereas there is too much cause to suspect that there have been some Pious Frauds practised upon these Trismegistick Writings as well as there were upon the Sibylline and that either whole Books of them have been counterfeited by pretended Christians or at least several spurious and supposititious Passages here and there inserted into some of them Isaac Casaubon who was the first Discoverer has taken notice of many such in that first Hermetick Book entituled Paemander some also in the Fourth Book inscribed Crater and some in the Thirteenth call'd the Sermon in the Mount concerning Regeneration which may justly render those Three whole Books or at least
Theologer only Xenophanes his One and All being nothing else but God Whom he proved to be One solitary Being from hence because God is the Best and Most Powerful of all things and there being many degrees of Entity there must needs be something Supreme to rule over all Which Best and most Powerful Being can be but One. He also did demonstrate it to be Vnmade as likewise to be neither Finite nor Infinite in a certain sence as he removed both Motion and Rest from God Wherefore when he saith that God always remaineth or resteth the same he understands not this of that Rest which is opposite to Motion and which belongs to such things as may be moved but of a certain other Rest which is both above that Motion and its Contrary From whence it is evident that Xenophanes supposed as Sextus the Philosopher also affirmeth God to be Incorporeal a Being unlike to all other things and therefore of which no Image could be made And now we understand that Aristotle dealt not ingenously with Xenophanes when from that expression of his that God was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spheryform he would infer that Xenophanes made God to be a Body and nothing else but the Round Corporeal World Animated which yet was repugnant also to another Physical Hypothesis of this same Xenophanes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there were Infinite Suns and Moons by which Moons he understood Planets affirming them to be all habitable Earths as Cicero tells us Wherefore as Simplicius resolves God was said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spheryform by Xenophanes only in this sence as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every way like and uniform However it is plain that Xenophanes asserting One God who was All or the Universe could not acknowledge a Multitude of Partial Self-existent Deities Heraclitus was no Clear but a Confounded Philosopher he being neither a Good Naturalist nor Metaphysician and therefore it is very hard or rather impossible to reconcile his Several Opinions with one another Which is a thing the less to be wondred at because amongst the rest of his Opinions this also is said to have been One That Contradictories may be true and his writings were accordingly as Plato intimates stuft with Unintelligible Mysterious Non-sence For First he is affirmed to have acknowledged no other Substance besides Body and to have maintained That All things did Flow and nothing Stand or remain the same and yet in his Epistles according to the common opinion of Philosophers at that time doth he suppose the Prae Post-existence of Humane Souls in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. My soul seemeth to vaticinate and presage its approaching dismission and freedom from this its prison and looking out as it were through the cracks and cranies of this body to remember those its native Regions or Countries from whence descending it was cloathed with this Flowing Mortal Body which is made up and constipated of Flegm Choler Serum Blood Nerves Bones and Flesh. And not only so but he also there acknowledgeth the Souls Immortality which Stoicks allowing its Permanency after Death for some time at least and to the next Conflagration did deny 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Body shall be fatally changed to something else but my Soul shall not die or perish but being an Immortal thing shall fly away mounting upwards to Heaven those Etherial Houses shall receive me and I shall no longer converse with men but Gods Again though Heraclitus asserted the Fatal Necessity of all things yet notwithstanding was he a strict Moralist and upon this accompt highly esteemed by the Stoicks who followed him in this and other things and he makes no small pretence to it himself in his Epistle to Hermodorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have also had my difficult Labours and Conflicts as well as Hercules I hâ—ve conquer'd Pleasures I have conquer'd Riches I have conquer'd Ambition I have subdued Cowardise and Flattery neither Fear nor Intemperance can control me Grief and Anger are afraid of me and fly away from me These are the Victories for which I am crowned not by Eurystheus but as being made Master of my self Lastly though Heraclitus made Fire to be the First Principle of all things and hath some odd Passages imputed to him yet notwithstanding was he a Devout Religionist he supposing that Fiery Matter of the whole Universe Animantem esse Deum to be an Animal and God And as he acknowledged Many Gods according to that which Aristotle recordeth of him That when some passing by had espied him sitting in a smoaky Cottage he bespake them after this manner Introite nam hic Dii sunt Come in I pray for here there are Gods also he supposing all places to be full of Gods Demons and Souls so was he an undoubted Asserter of One Supreme Numen that governs all things and that such as could neither be represented by Images nor confined to Temples For after he had been accused of Impiety by Euthycles he writes to Hermodorus in this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But O you unwise and unlearned teach us first what God is that so you may be believed in accusing me of Impiety Tell us where God is Is he shut up within the Walls of Temples Is this your Piety to place God in the dark or to make him a Stony God O you unskilful know ye not that God is not made with hands and hath no basis or fulcrum to stand upon nor can be inclosed within the Walls of any Temple the whole World variegated with Plants Animals and Stars being his Temple And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Am I Impious O Euthycles who alone know what God is Is there no God without Altars or are Stones the only witnesses of him No his own Works give testimony to him and principally the Sun Night and Day bear witness of him the Earth bringing forth fruits declares him the Circle of the Moon that was made by him is a Heavenly Testimony of him In the next place Anaxagoras the Clazomenian Philosopher comes to be considered whose Predecessors of the Ionick Order after Thales as Anaximander Anaximenes and Hippo were as hath been already observed Materialists and Atheists they acknowledging no other Substance besides Body and resolving all things into the Motions Passions and Affections of it Whence was that cautious advice given by Jamblichus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prefer the Italick Philosophy which contemplates Incorporeal Substances by themselves before the Ionick which principally considers Bodies And Anaxagoras was the first of these Ionicks who went out of that Road for seeing a necessity of some other Cause besides the Material Matter being not able so much as to move it self and much less if it could by Fortuitous Motion to bring it self into an Orderly System and Compages he therefore introduced Mind into the Cosmopoeia as the Principal Cause of the Universe
assigned but only from Airs and Ethers and Waters and such like Physical and Material things And he seemed to me to deal just as if one having affirmed that Socrates did all by Mind Reason and Vnderstanding afterward undertaking to declare the Causes of all my Actions as particularly of My Sitting here at this time should render it after this manner Because forsooth my Body is compounded of Bones and Nerves which Bones being solid have Joynts in them at certain distances and Nerves of such a nature as that they are capable of being both Intended and Remitted Wherefore my Bones being lifted up in the Joynts and my Nerves some of them intended and some remitted was the cause of the bending of my Body and of my sitting down in this place He in the mean time neglecting the true and proper Cause hereof which was no other than this Because it seemed good to the Athenians to condemn me to die as also to my self most Just rather to submit to their censure and undergo their punishment than by slight to escape it for certainly otherwise these Nerves and Bones of mine would not have been here now in this posture but amongst the Megarensians and Beotians carried thither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Opinion of the Best had I not thought it Better to submit to the sentence of the City than to escape the same by flight Which kind of Philosophers saith he do not seem to me to distinguish betwixt the True and Proper Cause of things and the Cause Sine qua non that without which they could not have been effected And such are they who devise many odd Physical Reasons for the firm Settlement of the Earth without any regard to that Power which orders all things for the Best as having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Divine Force in it but thinking to find out an Atlas far more strong and immortal and which can better hold all things together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good and Fit being not able in their Opinions to Hold or Bind any Thing From which passage of Plato's we may conclude that though Anaxagoras were so far convinced of Theism as in Profession to mak One Infinite Mind the Cause of all things Matter only excepted yet he had notwithstanding too great a Tang of that Old Material and Atheistical Philosophy of his Predecessors still hanging about him who resolved all the Phaenomena of Nature into Physical and nothing into Mental or Final Causes And we have the rather told this long story of him because it is so exact a Parallel with the Philosophick Humour of some in this present Age who pretending to assert a God do notwithstanding discard all Mental and Final Causality from having any thing to do with the Fabrick of the World and resolve all into Material Necessity and Mechanism into Vortices Globuli and Striate Particles and the like Of which Christian Philosophers we must needs pronounce that they are not near so good Theists as Anaxagoras himself was though so much condemned by Plato and Aristotle forasmuch as he did not only assert God to be the Cause of Motion but also the Governour Regulator and Methodizer of the same for the production of this Harmonious System of the World and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cause of Well and Fit Whereas these utterly reject the Latter and only admitting the Former will needs suppose Heaven and Earth Plants and Animals and all things whatsoever in this orderly Compages of the World to have resulted meerly from a certain Quantity of Motion or Agitation at first impressed upon the Matter and determin'd to Vortex XXXI The Chronology of the old Philosophers having some uncertainty in it we shall not Scrupulously concern our selves therein but in the next place consider Parmenides Xenophanes his Auditor and a Philosophick Poet likewise but who conversing much with two Pythagoreans Amenias and Diochoetes was therefore look'd upon as one that was not a little addicted to the Pythagorick Sect. That this Parmenides acknowledged Many Gods is evident from what hath been already cited out of him notwithstanding which he plainly asserted also One Supreme making him as Simplicius tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cause of all those other Gods of which Love is said to have been first produced Which Supreme Deity Parmenides as well as Xenophanes called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One that was All or the Vniverse but adding thereunto of his own that it was also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Immovable Now though it be true that Parmenides his Writings being not without obscurity some of the Ancients who were less acquainted with Metaphysical Speculations understood him Physically as if he had asserted the whole Corporeal Vniverse to be all but One Thing and that Immovable thereby destroying together with the Diversity of things all Motion Mutation and Action which was plainly to make Parmenides not to have been a Philosopher but a Mad man Yet Simplicius a man well acquainted with the Opinions of Ancient Philosophers and who had by him a Copy of Parmenides his Poems then scarce but since lost assures us that Parmenides dreamt of no such matter and that he wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not concerning a Physical Element or Principle but concerning the True Ens or the Divine Transcendency Adding that though some of those Ancient Philosophers did not distinguish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Natural things from Supernatural yet the Pythagoreans and Xenophones and Parmenides and Empedocles and Anaxagoras did all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 handle these Two distinctly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 however by reason of their obscurity it were not perceived by many for which cause they have been most of them misrepresented not only by Pagans but also by Christian Writers For as the same Simplicius informs us Parmenides propounded Two several Doctrines one after another the First concerning Theological and Metaphysical things called by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truth the Second concerning Physical and Corporeal things which he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Opinion The Transition betwixt which was contained in these Verses of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Former of which Doctrines Parmenides asserted One Immoveable Principle but in the Latter Two movable ones Fire and Earth He speaking of Souls also as a certain Middle or Vinculum betwixt the Incorporeal and the Coporeal World and affirming that God did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes send and translate Souls from the Visible to the Invisible Regions and sometimes again on the contrary from the Invisible to the Visible From whence it is plain that when Parmenides asserted his One and All Immovable he spake not as a Physiologer but as a Metaphysician and Theologer only Which indeed was a thing so evident that Aristotle himself though he had a mind to obscure Parmenides his sence that he might have a fling at him in his
Life is the Soul Concord contains Houses and Cities the cause of which Concord is Law and Harmony contains the whole World the cause of which Mundane Harmony is God And to the same purpose Aristaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the Artificer is to Art so is God to the Harmony of the world There is also this passage in the same Stobaeus cited out of an anonymous Pythagorean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is the Principle and the First thing and the World though it be not the Supreme God yet is it Divine Timaeus Locrus a Pythagorean Senior to Plato in his Book concerning Nature or the Soul of the World upon which Plato's Timaeus was but a kind of Commentary plainly acknowledgeth both One Supreme God the Maker and Governour of the whole World and also Many other Gods his Creatures and subordinate Ministers in the close thereof writing thus concerning the punishment of wickedmen after this life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All these things hath Nemesis decreed to be executed in the second Circuit by the Ministry of Vindictive Terrestrial Demons that are Overseers of humane affairs to which Demons that Supreme God the Ruler over all hath committed the Government and Administration of the World Which world is compleated and made up of Gods Men and other Animals all Created according to the best Pattern of the Eternal and Vnmade Idea In which words of Timaeus there are these Three several Points of the Pagan Theology contained First that there is One Supreme God Eternal and Unmade the Creator and Governour of the whole World and who made it according to the Best Pattern or Exemplar of his own Idea's and Eternal Wisdom Secondly that this World Created by God is compounded and made up of other Inferiour Gods Men and Brute Animals Thirdly that the Supreme God hath committed the Administration of our Humane Affairs to Demons and Inferiour Gods who are constant inspectors over us some of which he also makes use of for the punishment of wicked men after this life Moreover in this Book of Timaeus Locrus the Supreme God is often called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God in way of eminency sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Very Good sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Principle of the Best things sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Maker of the Better Evil being supposed not to proceed from him sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Best and most Powerful Cause sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prince and Parent of all things Which God according to him is not the Soul of the World neither but the Creator thereof he having made the World an Animal and a Secondary Generated God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God willing to make the world the Best that it was capable of made it a Generated God such as should never be destroyed by any other Cause but only by that God himself who framed it if he should ever will to dissolve it But since it is not the part of that which is good to destroy the Best of Works the World will doubtless ever remain Incorruptible and Happy the best of all Generated things made by the Best Cause looking not at Patterns Artificially framed without him but the Idea and Intelligible Essence as the Paradigms which whatsoever is made conformable to must needs be the Best and such as shall never need to be mended Moreover he plainly declares that this Generated God of his the World was produced in Time so as to have a Beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before the Heaven was made existed the Idea Matter and God the Opifex of the Best Wherefore whatever Ocellus and Philolaus might do yet this Timaeus held not the Worlds Eternity wherein he followed not only Pythagoras himself as we have already shewed but also the generality of the first Pythagoreans of whom Aristotle pronounces without exception 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they Generated the World Timaeus indeed in this Book seems to assert the Pre-eternity of the Matter as if it were a Self-existent Principle together with God and yet Clemens Alexandrinus cites a passage out of him looking another way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Would you hear of one only Principle of all things amongst the Greeks Timaeus Locrus in his Book of Nature will bear me witness thereof he there in express words writing thus There is One Principle of All Things Vnmade for if it were made it would not be a Principle but that would be the Principle from whence it was made Thus we see that Timaeus Locrus asserted One Eternal and Vnmade God the maker of the whole World and besides this another Generated God the World it self Animated with its several Parts the difference betwixt both which Gods is thus declared by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Eternal God who is the Prince Original and Parent of all these things is seen only by the Mind but the other Generated God is visible to our eyes viz. this world and those parts of it which are Heavenly that is the Stars as so many particular Gods contained in it But here it is to be observed that that Eternal God is not only so called by Timaeus as being without beginning but also as having a distinct kind of duration from that of Time which is properly called Aeon or Eternity he therein following Parmenides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Time is but an Image of that Vnmade Duration which we call Eternity wherefore as this sensible World was made according to that Eternal Exemplar or Pattern of the Intelligible World so was Time made together with the World as an Imitation of Eternity It hath been already observed that Onatus another Pythagorean took notice of an Opinion of some in his time that there was One only God who comprehended the whole World and no other Gods besides or at least none such as was to be religiously worshipped himself in the mean time asserting That there was both One God and Many Gods or besides One Supreme and Vniversal Numen Many other Inferiour and Particular Deities to whom also men ought to pay Religious Worship Now his further account of both these Assertions is contained in these following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who maintain that there is only One God and not Many Gods are very much mistaken as not considering aright what the Dignity and Majesty of the Divine Transcendency chiefly consisteth in namely in Ruling and Governing those which are like to it that is Gods and in excelling or surmounting Others and being Superiour to them But all those other Gods which we contend for are to that First and Intelligible God but as the Dancers to the Coryphaeus or Choragus as the Inferior Common Soldiers to the Captain or General to whom it properly belongeth to follow and comply with their Leader and Commander The work indeed
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I would willingly know what is my Duty First to the Gods and then to my Parents and other Relations And they are M. Antoninus his Precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revere the Gods and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In every thing implore the Aid and Assistance of the Gods And accordingly in that Close of his First Book himself does thankfully ascribe many Particular Benefits to The Gods in common 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I owe to the Gods that I had good Progenitors and Parents c. Where amongst the rest he reckons up this for One That he never was any great Proficient either in Poetry or Rhetorick because these would probably had he succeeded in his Pursuit of them have hindred him from the attainment of far better things and after all his Enumeration he concludeth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For all these things need the Assistance of the Gods and Fortune viz. because they are not in our own power Neither can it be denied but that they did often derogate from the Honour of the Supreme God by attributing such things to the Gods in common as the Donors of them which plainly belong to the Supreme God only As when Epictetus makes Reason in Men to be a gift of the Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Reason therefore given us by the Gods meerly to make us Miserable and Vnhappy And when he again imputes Vertue to them Hast thou overcome thy Lust thine Intemperance thine Anger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how much greater Cause then hast thou of offering Sacrifice than if thou hadst got a Consulship or Praetorship for those things come only from thy Self and from the Gods Though the Reason of these Speeches of theirs seems to have been no other than this because they took it for granted that those Understanding Beings Superiour to men called by them Gods were all of them the Instruments and Ministers of the Supreme God in the Government of the World and had therefore some kind of Stroke or Influence more or less upon all the Concernments of Mankind Whence it came to pass also that they often used those Words God and Gods promiscuously and Indifferently As one and the same Celebrated Speech of Socrates is sometimes expressed Singularly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If God will have it so let it be so Arr. Epict. L. 1. c 29. and L. 4. c. 4. and sometimes again Plurally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If the Gods will have it so Wherefore notwithstanding the Many Gods of those Stoicks they worshipped for all that One Supreme that is One Vniversal Numen that conteins and comprehends the whole World Who was variously described by them sometimes as the Nature and Reason of the whole World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Nature of the whole the Oldest of all the Gods and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Nature which governs all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Reason which governs the Substance of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Reason which passes through the Substance of the Vniverse and through all Eternity orders and dispenses all according to appointed Periods Sometimes is he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cause of all things sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hegemonick and Ruling Principle of the whole World and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince of the World Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Governour of the Whole as in this of Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Good man submits his Mind to the Governour of the whole Vniverse as good Citizens do theirs to the Law of the City Also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Orderer of all in this other Religious Passage of the same Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be Instructed is to Will things to be as they are Made and how are they made As that Great Disposer of all hath appointed Again the Supreme God is sometimes called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Intellectual Principle which conteins the whole as in this Instruction of M. Antoninus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That as our Bodies breath the common Air so should our Souls suck and draw in Vital Breath from that Great Mind that comprehends the Vniverse becoming as it were One Spirit with the same He is also called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mind and Vnderstanding of the whole World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Intellectual Fountain of all things and lastly to name no more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One God through all one substance and one Law Which Supreme God was commonly called also by the Stoicks together with the Generality of the other Pagans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God Emphatically and in way of Eminency as in this of Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Will nothing but what God Willeth and then who can be able to hinder thee And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Affect to seem fair to God desire to be Pure with thy Pure self and with God Also where he speaks of the Regular Course of things in Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it proceedeth orderly every thing as it were obeying the Command of God when he bids the Plants to blossom they blossom and when to bring forth fruit they bring forth fruit To which Innumerable other Instances might be added And Zeus or Jupiter was the Proper Name of this Supreme God amongst the Stoicks also whence the Government of the Whole World is called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Government or Oeconomy of Jupiter Lastly this Supreme God is sometimes distinguished by them from the other Gods expresly and by name as in this of Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have whom I ought to be subject to whom to obey God and those who are next after him that is the Supreme and Inferior Gods So likewise where he exhorteth not to desire things out of our own power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let jupiter alone with these things and the other Gods deliver them up to be ordered and governed by them And so again where he personates one that places his happiness in those things without him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I then shall sit lamenting and speaking evil of every one even Jupiter himself and the other Gods And it must in reason be supposed that this Jupiter or Vniversal Numen of the World was honoured by these Stoicks far above all their other Particular Gods he being acknowledged by them to have been the Maker or Creator of them as well as the whole World and the only Eternal and Immortal God all those other Gods as hath been already declared being as well Corruptible Mortal and Annihilable as they were Generated or Created For though Cicero's Lucilius Balbus where he pretends to represent the Doctrine of the Stoicks attribute the Very First Original of the World to a Plurality of Gods in these words
to the First God and to the Second Cause and to the Third the Soul of the World they calling this also the Third God Wherefore we think there is good reason to conclude that those Eternal or Vncreated Gods of Plato in his Timaeus whose Image or Statue this whole Generated or Created World is said by him to be were no other than his Trinity of Divine Hypostases the Makers or Creators thereof And it was before as we conceive rightly guessed that Cicero also was to be understood of the same Eternal Gods as Platonizing when he affirmed A Diis omnia à Principio facta That all things were at first made by the Gods and à Providentiâ Deorum Mundum omnes Mundi partes constitutas esse That the World and all its Parts were constituted by the Providence of the Gods But that the Second Hypostasis in Plato's Trinity viz. Mind or Intellect though said to have been Generated or to have Proceeded by way of Emanation from the First called Tagathon The Good was notwithstanding unquestionably acknowledged to have been Eternal or without Beginning might be proved by many express Testimonies of the most Genuine Platonists but we shall here content our selves only with Two one of Plotinus writing thus concerning it Enn. 5. L. 1. c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let all Temporal Generation here be quite banished from our thoughts whilst we treat of things Eternal or such as alwayes are we attributing Generation to them only in respect of Causality and Order but not of Time And though Plotinus there speak particularly of the Second Hypostasis or Nous yet does he afterwards extend the same also to the Third Hypostasis of that Trinity called Psyche or the Mundane Soul which is there said by him likewise to be the Word of the Second as that Second was the Word of the First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is Generated from what is better than Mind can be no other than Mind because Mind is the Best of all things and every thing else is after it and Junior to it as Psyche or Soul which is in like manner the Word of Mind and a certain Energy thereof as Mind is the Word and Energy of the First Good The other Testimony is of Porphyrius cited by S. Cyril out of the Fourth Book of his Philosophick History where he sets down the Doctrine of Plato after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wherefore we ought not to entertain any other Principles but having placed First the Simple Good to set Mind or the Supreme Intellect next after it and then the Vniversal Soul in the third place For this is the right order according to Nature neither to make More Intelligibles or Universal Principles nor yet Fewer than these three For he that will contract the number and make fewer of them must of necessity either suppose Soul and Mind to be the same or else Mind and the First Good But that all these three are divers from one another hath been often demonstrated by us It remains now to consider that if there be more than these three Principles what Natures they should be c. Thirdly as all these three Platonick Hypostases are Eternal and Necessarily Existent so are they plainly supposed by them not to be Particular but Vniversal Beings that is such as do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contain and comprehend the whole World under them and preside over all things which is all one as to say that they are each of them Infinite and Omnipotent For which reason are they also called by Platonick Writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Principles and Causes and Opificers of the whole World First as for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind or Vnderstanding Whereas the Old Philosophers before Plato as Anaxagoras Archelaus c. and Aristotle after him supposed Mind and Vnderstanding to be the very First and Highest Principle of all which also the Magick or Caldee Oracles take notice of as the most Common opinion of mankind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Mind is generally by all men look'd upon as the First and Highest God Plato considering that Vnity was in order of Nature before Number and Multiplicity and that there must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Intelligible before Intellect so that Knowledge could not be the First and Lastly that there is a Good transcending that of Knowledge made One most Simple Good the Fountain and Original of all things and the First Divine Hypostatis and Mind or Intellect only the Second next to it but Inseparable from it and most nearly Cognate with it For which cause in his Philebus though he agree thus far with those other Ancient Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Mind alwayes rules over the whole Vniverse yet does he add afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Mind is not absolutely the First Principle but Cognate with the Cause of all things and that therefore it rules over all things with and in a kind of subordination to that First Principle which is Tagathon or the Highest Good Where when Plato affirms that Mind or his Second Divine Hypostasis is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the First it is all one as if he should have said that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with it all which words are used by Athanasius as Synonymous with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Co-Essential or Con-Substantial So that Plato here plainly and expresly agrees or Symbolizes not with the Doctrine of Arius but with that of the Nicene Council and Athanasius that the Second Hypostasis of the Trinity whether called Mind or Word or Son is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Co-Essential or Con-Substantial with the First and therefore not a Creature And then as for the Third Hypostasis called Psyche or the Superiour Mundane Soul Plato in his Cratylus bestowing the name of Zeus that is of the Supreme God upon it and etymologizing the same from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adds these words concerning it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is nothing which is more the Cause of Life to us and all other Animals than this Prince and King of all things And that therefore God was called by the Greeks Zeus because it is by him that all Animals live And yet that all this was properly meant by him of the Third Hypostasis of his Trinity called Psyche is manifest from those words of his that follow where he expounds the Poetick Mythology before mentioned making Zeus to be the Son of Chronos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is agreeable to reason that Zeus should be the Progeny or Off-spring of a certain great Mind Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are equivalent Terms
able to beget the Father nor the Holy Ghost to Produce either Father or Son and therefore neither of these two Latter is absolutely the Cause of all things but only the First And upon this account was that First of these Three Hypostases who is the Original Fountain of all by Macrobius styled Omnipotentissimus Deus the Most Omnipotent God he therein implying the Second and Third Hypostases Nous and Psyche to be Omnipotent too but not in a perfect Equality with him as within the Deity they are compared together however ad Extra or Outwardly and to Us they being all One are Equally Omnipotent And Plotinus writeth also to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If the First be absolutely Perfect and the First Power then must it needs be the Most Powerful of all Beings other Powers only imitating and partaking thereof And accordingly hereunto would the Platonick Christian further pretend that there are sundry places in the Scripture which do not a little favour some Subordination and Priority both of Order and Dignity in the Persons of the Holy Trinity of which none is more obvious than that of our Saviour Christ My Father is greater than I which to understand of his Humanity only seemeth to be less reasonable because this was no news at all that the Eternal God the Creator of the whole World should be Greater than a Mortal Man born of a woman And thus do divers of the Orthodox Fathers as Athanasius himself St. Basil St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Chrysostome with several others of the Latins interpret the same to have been spoken not of the Humanity but the Divinity of our Saviour Christ. Insomuch that Petavius himself expounding the Athanasian Creed writeth in this manner Pater Major Filio ritè catholicè pronuntiatus est à plerisque Veterum Origine Prior sine reprehensione dici solet The Father is in a right Catholick manner affirmed by most of the ancients to be Greater than the Son and he is commonly said also without reprehension to be Before him in respect of Original Whereupon he concludeth the true meaning of that Creed to be this that no Person of the Trinity is Greater or Less than other in respect of the Essence of the Godhead common to them all Quia Vera Deitas in nullo esse aut Minor aut Major potest because the true Godhead can be no where Greater or Less but that notwithstanding there may be some Inequality in them as they are Hic Deus and Haec Persona This God and That Person It is true indeed that many of those ancient Fathers do restrain and limit this Inequality only to the Relation of the Persons one to another as the Father's Begetting and the Son 's being Begotten by the Father and the Holy Ghost Proceeding from both they seeming to affirm that there is otherwise a perfect Equality amongst them Nevertheless several of them do extend this Difference further also as for example St. Hilary a zealous Opposer of the Arians he in his Book of Synods writing thus Siquis Vnum dicens Deum Christum autem Deum ante secula Filium Dei Obsecutum Patri in Creatione omnium non consitetur Anathema sit And again Non exaequamus vel conformamus Filium Patri sed Subjectum intelligimus And Athanasius himself who is commonly accounted the very Rule of Orthodoxality in this Point when he doth so often resemble the Father to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sun or the Original Light and the Son to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Splendour or Brightness of it as likewise doth the Nicene Council and the Scripture it self he seems hereby to imply some Dependence of the Second upon the First and Subordination to it Especially when he declareth that the Three Persons of the Trinity are not to be look'd upon as Three Principles nor to be resembled to Three Suns but to the Sun and its Splendour and its Derivative Light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it appears from the similitude used by us that we do not introduce Three Principles as the Marcionists and Manicheans did we not comparing the Trinity to Three Suns but only to the Sun and its Splendour So that we acknowledge only one Principle As also where he approves of this of Dionysius of Alexandria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is an Eternal Light which never began and shall never cease to be wherefore thâ—re is an Eternal Splendour also coexistent with him which had no beginning neither but was Alwayes Generated by him shining out before him For if the Son of God be as the Splendour of the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Always Generated then must he needs have an Essential Dependence upon the Father and Subordination to him And this same thing further appears from those other resemblances which the same Dionysius maketh of the Father and the Son approved in like manner also by Athanasius viz. to the Fountain and the River to the Root and the Branch to the Water and the Vapour for so it ought to be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as appeareth from his Book of the Nicene Synod where he affirmeth the Son to have been begotten of the Essence or Substance of the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Splendour of the Light and as the Vapour of the Water adding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For neither the Splendour nor the Vapour is the very Sun and the very Water nor yet is it Aliene from it or a stranger to its nature but they are both Effluxes from the Essence or Substance of them as the Son is an Efflux from the Substance of the Father yet so as that he is no way diminished or lessened thereby Now all these similitudes of the Fountain and the River the Root and the Branch the Water and the Vapour as well as that of the Sun and the Splendour seem plainly to imply some Dependence and Subordination And Dionysius doubtless intended them to that purpose he asserting as Photius informeth us an Inferiority of Power and Glory in the Second as likewise did Origen before him both whose Testimonies notwithstanding Athanasius maketh use of without any censure or reprehension of them Wherefore when Athanasius and the other Orthodox Fathers writing against Arius do so frequently assert the Equality of all the Three Persons this is to be understood in way of opposition to Arius only who made the Son to be Unequal to the Father as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a different Essence from him One being God and the other a Creature they affirming on the contrary that he was Equal to the Father as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the same Essence with him that is as God and not a Creature Notwithstanding which Equality there might be some Subordination in them as Hic Deus and Haec Persona to use Petavius
they plunge themselves into Fear for they who are without Hope can never be free from Fear Endless of necessity must the Fears and Anxieties of those men be who shake off that One Fear of God that would only preserve them from Evil and have no Faith nor Hope in him Wherefore we might conclude upon better grounds than the Atheists do of Theism that Atheism which hath no foundation at all in Nature nor in Reason springs first from the Imposture of Fear For the Faith of Religion being the Substance or Confidence of such things not seen as are to be Hoped for Atheistick Insidelity must needs on the contrary be a certain heavy Diffidence Despondence and Misgiving of Mind or a Timorous Distrust and Disbelief of Good to be Hoped for beyond the reach of Sense namely of an Invisible Being Omnipotent that exerciseth a Just Kind and Gracious Povidence over all those who commit their ways to him with an endeavour to please him both here in this Life and after Death But Vice or the Love of Lawless Liberty prevailing over such Disbelieving persons makes them by degrees more and more desirous that there should be no God that is no such Hinderer of their Liberty and to count it a happiness to be freed from the Fear of him whose Justice if he were they must needs be obnoxious to And now have we made it Evident that these Atheists who make Religion and the Belief of a God to proceed from the Imposture of Fear do first of all disguise the Deity and put a Monstrous Horrid and Affrightful Vizard upon it transforming it into such a thing as can only be Feared and Hated and then do they conclude concerning it as well indeed they may that there is no such thing as this really Existing in Nature but that it is only a Mormo or Bugbear raised up by mens Fear and Phansie Of the Two it might better be said that the Opinion of a God sprung from mens Hope of Good than from their Fear of Evil but really it springs neither from Hope nor Fear however in different Circumstances it raises both those Passions in our Minds nor is it the Imposture of any Passion but that whose Belief is supported and Sustained by the strongest and clearest Reason as shall be declared in due place But the Sense of a Deity often Preventing Ratiocination in us and urging it self more Immediately upon us it is certain that there is also besides a Rational Belief thereof a Natural Prolepsis or Anticipation in the Minds of men concerning it which by Aristotle is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Vaticination Thus have we sufficiently confuted the First Atheistick Pretence to salve the Phaenomenon of Religion and the Belief of a God so generally entertained from the Imposture of Fear we come now to the Second That it proceeded from the Ignorance of Causes also or Mens want of Philosophy they being prone by reason of their Innate Curiosity where they find no Causes to make or feign them and from their Fear in the Absence of Natural and Necessary Causes to imagine Super-natural and Divine this also affording them a handsom Cover and Pretext for their Ignorance For which cause these Atheists stick not to affirm of God Almighty what some Philosophers do of Occult Qualities that he is but Persugium Asylum Ignorantiae a Refuge and Shelter for mens Ignorance that is in plain and downright Languâ—ge The meer Sanctuary of Fools And these two things are here commonly joyned together by these Atheists both Fear and Ignorance of Causes as which joyntly concurr in the Production of Theism Because as the Fear of Children raises up Bugbears especially in the Dark so do they suppose in like manner the Fear of men in the Darkness of their Ignorance of Causes especially to raise up the Mormo Spectre or Phantasm of a God which is thus intimated by the Epicurean Poet Omnia Caecis In tenebris Metuunt And accordingly Democritus gave this account of the Original of Theism or Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That when in old times men observed strange and affrightful things in the Meteors and the Heaven as Thunder Lightning Thunderbolts Eclipses they not knowing the Causes thereof being terrified thereby presently imputed them to the Gods And Epicurus declares this to have been the reason why he took such great pains in the study of Physiology that by finding out the Natural and Necessary Causes of things he might be able to free both himself and others from the Terrour of a God which would otherwise Invade and Assault them the Importunity of mens minds when-ever they are at a loss for Natural Causes urging them so much with the Fear Suspicion and Jealousie of a Deity Wherefore the Atheists thus dabling in Physiology and finding out as they conceive Material and Mechanical Causâ—s for some of the Phaenomâ—na of Nature and especially for such of them as the unskilful Vulgar some times impute to God himâ—elf when they can prove Eclipses for example to be no Miracles and render it probable that Thunder is not the Voice of God Almighty himself as it were roaring above in the Heavens meerly to affright and amaze poor Mortals and make them quake and tremble and that Thunderbolts are not there flung by his own hands as the direful messengers of his wrath and displeasure they presently conclude triumphantly thereupon concerning Nature or Matter that it doth Ipsa suâ per se sponte omnia Diis agere expers Do all things alone of it self without a God But we shall here make it appear in a few Instances as briefly as we may that Philosophy and the True Knowledge of Causes leads to God and that Atheism is nothing but Ignorance of Causes and of Philosophy For first no Atheist who derives all from sensless Atoms or Matter is able to assign any Cause at all of Himself or give any true account of the Original of his own Soul or Mind it being utterly Unconceivable and Impossible that Soul and Mind Sense Reason and Vnderstanding should ever arise from Irrational and Sensless Matter however modified or result from Atoms devoid of all manner of Qualities that is from meer Magnitude Figure Site and Motion of Parts For though it be indeed absurd to say as these Atheists alledge that Laughing and Crying Things are made out of Laughing and Crying Principles Et Ridere potest non ex Ridentibu ' factus Yet does it not therefore follow that Sensitive and Rational Beings might result from a Composition of Irrational and Sensless Atoms which according to the Democritick Hypothesis have nothing in them but Magnitude Figure Site and Motion or Rest. Because Laughing and Crying are Motions which result from the Mechanism of Humane Bodies in such a manner Organized but Sense and Vnderstanding are neither Local Motion nor Mechanism And the Case will be the very same both in the Anaximandrian or Hylopathian and in the
Stratonick or Hylozoick Atheism because Sense and Conscious Vnderstanding could no more result either from those Qualities of Heat and Cold Moist and Dry contempered together or from the meer Organization of Inanimate and Sensless Matter than it could from the Concursus Motus Ordo Positura Figurae of Atoms devoid of all manner of Qualities Had there been once nothing but Sensless Matter Fortuitously Moved there could never have emerged into Being any Soul or Mind Sense and Vnderstanding because no Effect can possibly transcend the Perfection of its Cause Wherefore Atheists supposing Themselves and all Souls and Minds to have sprung from Stupid and Sensless Matter and all that Wisdom which is any where in the World both Political and Philosophical to be the Result of meer Fortune and Chance must needs be concluded to be Grosly Ignorant of Causes which had they not been they could never have been Atheists So that Ignorance of Causes is the Seed not of Theism but of Atheism true Philosophy and the Knowledge of the Cause of our Selves leading necessarily to a Deity Again Atheists are Ignorant of the Cause of Motion in Bodies also by which notwithstanding they suppose all things to be done that is they are never able to Salve this Phaenomenon so long as they are Atheists and acknowledge no other Substance besides Matter or Body For First it is undeniably certain that Motion is not Essential to all Body as such because then no Particles of Matter could ever Rest and consequently there could have been no Generation nor no such Mundane System produced as this is which requires a certain Proportionate Commixture of Motion and Rest no Sun nor Moon nor Earth nor Bodies of Animals since there could be no Coherent Consistency of any thing when all things flutter'd and were in continual Separation and Divulsion from one another Again it is certain likewise that Matter or Body as such hath no Power of Moving it self Freely or Spontaneously neither by Will or Appetite both because the same Inconvenience would from hence ensue likewise and because the Phaenomena or Appearances do plainly evince the contrary And as for that Prodigiously Absurd Paradox of some few Hylozoick Atheists that all Matter as such and therefore every Smallest Particle thereof hath not only Life Essentially belonging to it but also Perfect Wisdom and Knowledge together with Appetite and Self-moving Power though without Animal Sense or Consciousness this I say will be elsewhere in due place further confuted But the Generality of the ancient Atheists that is the Anaximandrians and Democriticks attributed no manner of Life to Matter as such and therefore could ascribe no Voluntary or Spontaneous Motion to the same but Fortuitous only according to that of the Epicurean Poet already cited Nam certè neque Consilio Primordia rerum Ordine se quaeque atque sagaci mente locarunt Nec quos quaeque darent Motus pepigere profectó Wherefore these Democriticks as Aristotle somewhere intimates were able to assign no other Cause of Motion than only this That One Body moved another from Eternity Infinitely so that there was no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no First Vnmoved Mover ever to be found because there is no Beginning nor First in Eternity From whence probably that Doctrine of some Atheistick Stoicks in Alex. Aphrodisius was derived That there is no First in the rank and order of Causes In the footsteps of which Philosophers a Modern Writer seemeth to have trodden when declaring himself after this manner Si quis ab Effectu quocunque ad Causam ejus Immediatam atque inde and Remotiorem ac sic perpetuò ratiocinatione ascenderit non tamen in aeternum procedere poterit sed defatigatus aliquando deficiet If any one will from whatsoever Effect ascend upward to its Immediate Cause and from thence to a Remoter and so onwards perpetually in his Ratiocination yet shall he never be able to hold on thorough all Eternity but at length being quite tyred out with his Journey be forced to desist or give over Which seems to be all one as if he should have said One thing Moved or Caused another Infinitely from Eternity in which there being no Beginning there is consequently no First Mover or Cause to be reach'd unto But this Infinite Progress of these Democriticks in the Order of Causes and their shifting off the Cause of Motion from one thing to another without end or beginning was rightly understood by Aristotle to be indeed the Assigning of No Cause of Motion at all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They acknowledging saith he no First Mover according to Nature must needs make an idle Progress Infinitely that is in the Language of this Philosopher assign no Cause at all of Motion Epicurus therefore to mend the matter though according to the Principles of the Atomick Physiology he discarded all other Qualities yet did he notwithstanding admit this One Quality of Gravity or Ponderosity in Atoms pressing them continually downwards in Infinite Space In which as nothing could be more Absurd nor Vnphilosophical than to make Vpwards and Downwards in Infinite Space or a Gravity tending to no Centre nor Place of Rest so did he not assign any Cause of Motion neither but only in effect affirm the Atoms therefore to tend Downwards because they did so a Quality of Gravity signifying only an Endeavour to tend Downwards but Why or Wherefore no body knows And it is all one as if Epicurus should have said that Atoms moved Downwards by an Occult Quality he either betaking himself to this as an Asylum a Sanctuary or Refuge for his Ignorance or else indeed more absurdly making his very Ignorance it self disguized under that name of a Quality to be the Cause of Motion Thus the Atheists universally either assigned no Cause at all for Motion as the Anaximandrians and Democriticks or else no True one as the Hylozoists when to avoid Incorporeal Substance they would venture to attribute Perfect Vnderstanding Appetite or Will and Self-moving Power to all Sensless Matter whatsoever But since it appears plainly that Matter or Body cannot Move it self either the Motion of all Bodies must have no manner of Cause or else must there of necessity be some other Substance besides Body such as is Self-active and Hylarchical or hath a Natural Power of Ruling over Matter Upon which latter account Plato rightly determin'd that Cogitation which is Self-activity or Autochinesie was in order of Nature before the Local Motion of Body which is Heterochinesie Though Motion considered Passively in Bodies or taken for their Translation or Change of Distance and Place be indeed a Corporeal thing or a Mode of those Bodies themselves moving yet as it is considered Actively for the Vis Movens that Active Force which causes this Translation or Change of Place so is it an Incorporeal thing the Energy of a Self-Active Substance upon that sluggish Matter or Body which cannot at all move it self Wherefore in the Bodies of
them assigned meerly from Matter and Mechanism or the Necessary and Vnguided Motion thereof without Design or Intention for Ends and Good Wherefore to say that the Bodies of Animals became such meerly because the Fluid Seed by Motion Happened to make such Traces and beget such Stamina and Lineamentâ— as out of which that Compages of the whole resulted is not to assign a Cause of them but to Dissemble Smother and Conceal their True Efficient Cause which is the Wisdom and Contrivance of that Divine Architect and Geometer making them every way fit for the Inhabitation and uses of their respective Souls Neither indeed can we banish all Final that is all Mental Causality from Philosophy or the Consideration of Nature without banishing at the same time Reason and Vnderstanding from our selves and looking upon the Things of Nature with no other Eyes than Brutes do However none of the Ancient Atheists would ever undertake to assign Necessary Causes for all the Parts of the Bodies of Animals and their Efformation from meer Matter Motion and Mechanism Those small and pitiful attempts in order thereunto that have been made by some of them in a few Instances as that the Spina Dorsi came from the Flexure of the Bodies of Animals when they first sprung out of the Earth the Intestines from the Flux of Humours excavating a crooked and winding Channel for it self and that the Nostrils were broke open by the Eruption of breath these I say only showing the Vnfeisableness and Impossibility thereof And therefore Democritus was so wise as never to pretend to give an Account in this way of the Formation of the Foetus he looking upon it as a thing absolutely Desperate nor would he venture to say any more concerning it as Aristotle informeth us than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it always cometh so to pass of necessity but stopp'd all further Enquiry concerning it after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That to demand about any of these things for what Cause it was thus was to demand a Beginning of Infinite As if all the Motions from Eternity had an Influence upon and Contribution to whatsoever Corporeal thing was now produced And Lucretius notwithstanding all his swaggering and boasting that He and Epicurus were able to assign Natural and Necessary Causes for every thing without a God hath no where so much as one word concerning it We conclude therefore that Aristotle's Judgment concerning Final Causes in Philosophy is much to be preferred before that of Democritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Both kind of Causes Material and Final ought to be declared by a Physiologer but especially the Final the End being the Cause of the Matter but the Mâ—tter not the Cause of the End And thus do we see plainly that the Atomick Atheists are utterly ignorant of the Cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Râ—â—uâ—ar and Artificial Frame of thâ— things in Nâ—ture and consâ—quently of the whâ—le Mundane Sâ—stem the True Knowledge whereof nâ—câ—ssâ—rily leadeth to a God But it is prodigiously strange that these Atheists should in this their Ignorance and Sottâ—shnâ—ss be Justified by any Professed Theists and Christians of Later times who Atomizing in their Physiology also would fain perswade us in like manner that this whole Mundane System together with Plants and Animals was derived meerly from the Necessary and Vnguided Motion of the Small Particles of Matter at first turned round in a Vortex or else jumbled all together in a Chaos without any Intention for Ends and Good that is without the Direction of any Mind God in the mean time standing by only as an Idle Spâ—ctator of this Lusus Atomorum this Sportful Dance of Atoms and of the various Results thereof Nay these Mechanick Theists have here quite outstripped and out-done the Atomick Atheists themselves they being much more Immodest and Extravagant than ever those were For the Professed Atheists durst never venture to affirm that this Regular System of things Resulted from the Fortuitous Motions of Atoms at the very first before they had for a long time together produced many other Inept Combinations or Aggregate Forms of particular things and Nonsensical Systems of the whole And they supposed also that the Regularity of things here in this world would not always continue such neither but that some time or other Confusion and Disorder would break in again Moreover that besides this World of ours there are at this very instant Innumerable other worlds Irregular and that there is but One of a Thousand or ten Thousand amongst the Infinite Worlds that have such Regularity in them The reason of all which is because it was generally taken for granted and look'd upon as a Common Notion that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle expresseth it that None of those things which are from Fortune or Chance come to pass constantly and always alike But our Mechanick or Atomick Theists will have their Atoms never so much as once to have Fumbled in these their Fortuitous Motions nor to have produced any Inept System or Incongruous Forms at all but from the very first all along to have taken up their Places and have Ranged themselves so Orderly Methodically and Discreetly as that they could not possibly have done it better had they been Directed by the most Perfect Wisdom Wherefore these Atomick Theists utterly Evacuate that grand Argument for a God taken from the Phaenomenon of the Artificial Frame of things which hath been so much insisted on in all Ages and which commonly makes the strongest impression of any other upon the Minds of men they leaving only certain Metaphysical Arguments for a Deity which though never so good yet by reason of their Subtilty can do but little Execution upon the Minds of the Generality and even amongst the Learned do oftentimes beget more of Doubtful Disputation and Scepticism than of Clear Conviction and Satisfaction The Atheists in the mean time laughing in their sleeves and not a little triumphing to see the Cause of Theism thus betrayed by its professed Friends and Assertors and the Grand Argument for the same totally Slurred by them and so their work done as it were to their hands for them Now as this argues the greatest Insensibility of Mind or Sottishness and Stupidity in Pretended Theists not to take the least notice of the Regular and Artificial Frame of things or of the Signatures of the Divine Art and Wisdom in them nor to look upon the World and things of Nature with any Other Eyes than Oxen and Horses do so are there many Phaenomena in Nature which being partly Above the Force of these Mechanick Powers and partly Contrary to the same can therefore never be Salved by them nor without Final Causes and some Vital Principle As for example that of Gravity or the Tendency of Bodies Downward the Motion of the Diaphragma in Respiration the Systole and Diastole of the Heart which was before declared to be a Muscular Constriction and
is some confirmation of the Truth of Christianity the Scripture insisting so much upon these Evil Demons or Devils and declaring it to be one design of our Saviour Christ's coming into the World to oppose these Confederate Powers of the Kingdom of Darkness and to rescue mankind from the Thraldom and Bondage thereof As for Wizards and Magicians Persons who associate and confederate themselves in a peculiar manner with these Evil Spirits for the gratification of their own Revenge Lust Ambition and other Passions besides the Scriptures there hath been so full an attestation given to them by persons unconcerned in all Ages that those our so confident Exploders of them in this present Age can hardly escape the suspicion of having some Hankring towards Atheism But as for the Demoniacks and Energumeni It hath been much wondred that there should be so many of them in our Saviour's time and hardly any or none in this present Age of ours Certain it is from the Writings of Josephus in sundry places that the Pharisaick Jews were then generally possessed with an Opinion of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Demoniacks men Possessed with Devils or Infested by them And that this was not a meer Phrase or Form of Speech only amongst them for persons very Ill-affected in their Bodies may appear from hence that Josephus declares it as his opinion concerning the Demons or Devils that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirits or Souls of wicked men deceased getting into the Bodies of the Living From hence it was that Jews in our Saviour's time were not at all Surprised with his casting out of Devils it being usual for them also then to Exorcise the same an Art which they pretended to have learn'd from Solomon Of whom thus Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God also taught Solomon an Art against Demons and Devils for the benefit and Cure of men Who composed certain Incantations by which diseases are cured and left forms of exorcisms whereby Devils are expelled and driven away Which Method of curing prevails much amongst us at this very day Notwithstanding which we think it not at all probable what a late Atheistick Writer hath asserted that the heads of the Jews were then all of them so full of Demons and Devils that they generally took all manner of Bodily Diseases such as Feavers and Agues and Dumbness and Deafness for Devils Though we grant that this very thing was imputed by Plotinus afterward to the Gnosticks that they supposed all Diseases to be Devils and therefore not to be cured by Physick but expelled by Words or Charms Thus he En. 2. Lib. 9. c. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now when they affirm Diseases to be Demons or Devils and pretend that they can expel them by words undertaking to do the same they hereby indeed render themselves considerable to the vulgar who are wont not a little to admire the powers of Magicians But they will not be able to perswade wise men that Diseases have no natural Causes as from Repletion or Inanition or Putrefaction or the like Which is a thing manifest from their cure they being oftentimes removed by purgation and bleeding and abstinence Vnless perhaps these men will say that the Devil is by this means Starved and made to Pine away Nor can we think that the Jews in our Saviour's time either supposed all Mad-men to be Demoniacks or all Demoniacks Mad-men though this latter seems to be asserted by an Eminent Writer of our own we reading of Devils cast out from others besides Mad-men and of a woman which had a Spirit of Infirmity only and was bowed together and could not lift up her self which is said by our Saviour Christ to have been bound by Satan Wherefore the sense of the Jews formerly seems to have been this that when there was any unusual and extraordinary Symptoms in any bodily Distemper but especially that of Madness this being look'd upon something more than Natural was imputed by them to the Possession or Infestation of some Devil Neither was this proper to the Jews only at that time to suppose Evil Demons to be the Causes of such bodily diseases as had extraordinary Symptoms and especially Madness but the Greeks and other Gentiles also were embued with the same Perswasion as appeareth from Apollonius Tyanaeus his curing a Laughing Demoniack at Athens he ejecting that Evil Spirit by threats and menaces who is said at his departure to have tumbled down a Royal Porch in the City with great noise As also from his freeing the City of Ephesus from the Plague by stoning an old Ragged Beggar said by Apollonius to have been the Plague which appeared to be a Demon by his changing himself into the form of a Shagged Dog But that there is some Truth in this Opinion and that at this very day Evil Spirits or Demons do sometimes really Act upon the Bodies of men and either Inflict or Augment bodily Distempers and Diseases hath been the Judgment of two very experienced Physicians Sennertus and Fernelius The Former in his Book De Mania Lib. 1. cap. 15. writing thus Etsi sine ulla Corporis Morbosa Dispositione Deo permittente hominem Obsidere Occupare Daemon possi◠tamen quandoque Morbis praecipuè Melancholicis sese immiscet Daemon forsan frequentius hoc accidit quam saepè creditur Although the Devil may by Divine permission Possess men without any Morbid Disposition yet doth he usually intermingle himself with Bodily Diseases and especially those of Melancholy and perhaps this cometh to pass ostner than is commonly believed or suspected The other in his De Abditis rerum Causis where having attributed real Effects upon the bodies of men to Witchcraft and Enchantment he addeth Neque solum morbos verum etiam Daemonas scelerati homines in corpora immittunt Hi quidem visuntur Furoris quadam specie distorti hoc uno tamen à Simplici Furore distant quod summè ardua obloquantur praeterita occulta renuntient assidentiúmque arcana reserent Neither do these wicked Magicians only inflict Diseases upon mens Bodies but also send Devils into them By means whereof they appear distorted with a kind of fury and madness which yet differs from a Simple Madness or the Disease so called in this that they speak of very high and difficult matters declare things past unknown and discover the Secrets of those that sit by Of which he subjoyns two Notable Instances of Persons well known to himself that were plainly Demoniacal Possessed or Acted by an Evil Demon one whereof shall be afterwards mentioned But when Maniacal Persons do not only discover Secrets and declare things Past but Future also besides this speak in Languages which they had never learnt this puts it out of all doubt and question that they are not meer Mad men or Maniaci but Demoniacks or Energumeni And that since the time of our Saviour Christ there have been often
said They have well spoken that which they have spoken I will raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren like unto thee and put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him and whosoever will not hearken to the words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him Which is all one as if he should have said I will no more speak to them with Thunder and Lightning nor reveal my will with a Terrible Voyce out of Flaming Fire but the next great Manifestation of my self or further Revelation of my Will shall be by a Prophet from amongst their own Brethren I putting my words into his mouth and speaking to them by him Whose words they shall be as much obliged to hearken to as if I had spoken them as before from the top of the Fiery Mount And that they may have no Colour for their Disbelieving this great Prophet especially or their disobeying of him I plainly declare that whosoever cometh in my Name and does True and Real Miracles shall be acknowledged undoubtedly for a True Prophet sent by me and accordingly Believed and Obeyed and none rejected under the Notion of False Prophets but only such as either do not Real Miracles or else if they do come in the name of Other Gods or Exhort to Idolatry Nevertheless our Saviour Christ wrought other Miracles also of a higher Nature by the Immediate Power of God Almighty himself as for example when before himself he raised Lazarus who had been dead four days to life since it cannot be conceived to be in the Power of Created Spirits whether Bad or Good when ever they please to bring back the Souls of men deceased to their Bodies again or change the Laws of Nature and Fate However it must not be thought that God will ever set this Seal of his to a Lye or that which is plainly contrary to the Light and Law of Nature The conclusion is that though all Miracles promiscuously do not immediatly prove the Existence of a God nor Confirm a Prophet or whatsoever Doctrine yet do they all of them evince that there is a Rank of Invisible Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men which the Atheists commonly deny And we read of some such Miracles also as could not be wrought but by a Power Perfectly Super Natural or by God Almighty himself But to deny and disbelieve all Miracles is either to deny all Certainty of Sense which would be indeed to make Sensation it self Miraculous or else monstrously and unreasonably to derogate from Humane Testimonies and History The Jews would never have so stifly and pertinaciously adhered to the Ceremonial Law of Moses had they not all along believed it to have been unquestionably confirmed by Miracles and that the Gentiles should at first have entertained the Faith of Christ without Miracles would it self have been The Greatest of Miracles The Last Extraordinary Phaenomenon proposed was that of Divination Oracles Prophecies or Predictions of Future Events otherwise Unforeknowable to men which either Evince a God or at least that there are Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men For if there be Presention or Foreknowledge of such Future Events as are to Humane Understanding alone altogether Unforeknowable then is it certain that there is some more Perfect Vnderstanding or Knowledge in the World than that of men And thus is that Maxim of the Ancient Pagan Theists in the Genuine and proper sense thereof unquestionably true Si Divinatio est Dii sunt If there be Divination or Presention of Future Events Vndiscoverable by men then are there Gods which in their Language was no more than to say Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men Wherefore we must here distinguish of Oracles and Predictions after the same manner as we did before of Mirâ—â—les that they may be of Two Kinds First such as might proceed only from the Natural Presaging Power of Created Spirits Superiour to men whether called Angels or Demons For these being supposed to have not only clearer understandings than men and a greater insight into Nature but also be reason of their Agility and Invisibility opportunity of knowing things remotely distant and of being privy to mens Secret Machinations and Consultations it is easily conceivable that many Future Events nigh at hand which cannot be foreknown by men may be probably at least foreseen by them and that without any Miraculous Divine Revelation their Causes being already in Being As men learned in Astronomy can foretel Eclipses of the Sun and Moon which to the Vulgar are altogether Unforeknowable And as Princes or States-men that are furnished with great Intelligence Foreign and Domestick can presage more of War and Peace either at home or abroad and of the Events of Kingdoms than Ignorant Plebeians And such were those Predictions which Democritus though otherwise much addicted to Atheism allowed of Cicero Writing thus of him Plurimis Locis gravis auct or Democritus Praesensionem rerum futurarum comprobat Democritus a grave Writer doth in many places approve of the Presention of Future Events The reason whereof was because he supposed certain Vnderstanding Beings Superiour to men called by him Idols which having a larger Comprehension of things and other advantages of Knowledge could therefore foretel many Future Events that men were ignorant of And though perhaps it may be thought that Democritus would not have entertained this Opinion of the Foreknowledge of Humane Events had he not asserted the Necessity of all humane Actions and Volitions but held Liberty of Will as Epicurus afterwards did as if this were Inconsistent with all manner of Presage and Probable or Conjectural Foreknowledge yet is it certain that there is not so much Contingency in all Humane Actions by reason of this Liberty of Will as heretofore was by Epicurus and still is by many supposed it being plain that men act according to an Appearance of Good and that in many cases and circumstances it may be Foreknown without any Divine Revelation what such or such persons would do As for example that a voluptuous Person having a strong Temptation to satisfie his Sensual Appetite and that without incurring any inconvenience of shame or punishment would readily close with the same Besides which such Invisible Spirits as Angels or Demons may sometimes Predict also what themselves Cause and Effect Secondly there is another Sort of Predictions of Future Events which cannot be imputed to the Natural Presaging Faculty of any such Created Spirits but only to the Supernatural Prescience of God Almighty or a Being Infinitely Perfect As when Events remotely distant in time and of which there are yet no immediate Causes actually in Being which also depend upon many circumstances and a long Series of things any one of which being otherwise would alter the case as likewise upon much Uncertainty of Humane Volitions which are not always necessarily linked and concatenated with what goes before but often loose and free
and upon that Contingency that arises from the Indifferency or Equality of Eligibility in Objects Lastly such things as do not at all depend upon External Circumstances neither nor are caused by things Natural Anteceding but by some Supernatural Power I say when such Future Events as these are foretold and accordingly come to pass this can be ascribed to no other but such a Being as Comprehends Sways and Governs all and is by a peculiar Priviledge or Prerogative of its own Nature Omniscient Epicurus though really he therefore rejected Divination and Prediction of Future Events because he denied Providence yet did he pretend this further reason also against it because it was a thing Absolutely Inconsistent with Liberty of Will and Destructive of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divination is a thing which hath no Existence nor possibility in nature and if there were such a thing it would take away all Liberty of Will and leave nothing in mens own Power Thus also Carneades in Cicero maintained Ne Apollinem quidem futura posse dicere nisi ea quorum Causas Natura ita contineret ut ea fieri necesse esset That Apollo himself was not able to foretel any future Events other than such as had Necessary Causes in Nature antecedent And some Christian Theists of latter times have in like manner denied to God Almighty all Foreknowledge of Humane Actions upon the same pretence as being both Inconsistent with mens Liberty of Will and Destructive thereof For say they If mens Actions be Free then are they Vnforeknowable they having no Necessary Causes and again if there be any Foreknowledge of them then can they not be Free they being ipso facto Necessitated thereby But as it is certain that Prescience does not destroy the Liberty of mans Will or impose any Necessity upon it mens Actions being not therefore Future because they are Foreknown but therefore Foreknown because Future and were a thing never so Contingent yet upon supposition that it will be Done it must needs have been Future from all Eternity So is it extreme Arrogance for men because themselves can Naturally Foreknow nothing but by some Causes Antecedent as an Eclipse of the Sun or Moon therefore to presume to measure the knowledge of God Almighty according to the same Scantling and to deny him the Prescience of Humane Actions not considering that as his Nature is Incomprehensible so his Knowledge may well be looked upon by us as such too that which is Past our finding out and Too Wonderful for us However it must be acknowledged for an Undoubted Truth that no Created Being can Naturally and Of it self Foreknow any Future Events otherwise than in and by their Causes Anteceding If therefore we shall find that there have been Predictions of such Future Events as had no Necessary Antecedent Causes as we cannot but grant such Things therefore to be Foreknowable So must we needs from thence infer the Existence of a God that is a Being Supernatural Infinitely Perfect and Omniscient since such Predictions as these could have proceeded from no other Cause That there is Foreknowledge of Future Events to men Naturally Unforeknowable hath been all along the Perswasion of the Generality of Mankind Thus Cicero Vetus opinio est jam usque ab Heroicis ducta temporibus eaque Populi Romani omnium Gentium firmata consensu Versari quandam inter homines Divinationem quam Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellant id est Praesensionem Scientiam rerum Futurarum This is an Old opinion derived down all along from the Heroick times or the Mythical Age and not only entertained amongst the Romans but also confirmed by the consent of all Nations that there is such a thing as Divination and Presension or Foreknowledge of Future Events And the same Writer elsewhere in the Person of Balbus Quamvis nihil tam irridet Epicurus quà m Praedictionem rerum Futurarum mihi videtur tamen vel maximè confirmare Deorum Providentia consuli rebus humanis Est enim profecto Divinatio quae multis locis rebus temporibus apparet cùm in privatis tùm maximè in publicis Multa cernunt Aruspices multa Augures provident multa Oraculis providentur multa Vaticinationibus multa Somniis multa portentis Although Epicurus deride nothing more then the Prediction of Fature things yet does this seem to me to be a great confirmation of the Providence of the Gods over humane affairs Because there is certainly Divination it appearing in many Places Things and Times and that not only Private but especially Publick Soothsayers foresee many things the Augurs many many things are declared by Oracles many by Prophecies many by Dreams and many by Portents And indeed that there were even amongst the Pagans Predictions of Future Events not discoverable by any Humane Sagacity which accordingly came to pass and therefore argue a Knowledge superiour to that of men or that there are certain Invisible understanding Beings or Spirits seems to be undenyable from History And that the Augurs themselves were sometimes not Unassisted by these Officious Genii is plain from that of Attius Navius before mentioned as the circumstances thereof are related by Historians that Tarquinius Priscus having a mind to try what there was in this skill of Augury Dixit ei se cogitare quiddam id possétne fieri consuluit Ille augurio acto posse respondet Tarquinius autem dixit se cogitasse cotem novaculâ posse praecidi tum Attium jussisse experiri ita Cotem in Comitium illatam inspectante Rege Populo novaculâ esse discissam Told Navius that he Thought of something and he would would know of him Whether it could be done or no. Navius having performed his Augurating Ceremonies replied that the thing might be done Whereupon Priscus declared what his Thought was namely that a Whetstone might be cut in two with a Razor Navius willed them to make trial wherefore a Whetstone being brought immediatly into the Court it was in the sight of the King and all the People divided with a Razor But the Predictions amongst those Pagans were for the most part only of the Former Kind such as proceeded meerly from the Natural Presaging Faculty of these Demons this appearing from hence because their Oracles were often expressed Ambiguously so as that they might be taken either way those Demons themselves it seems being then not confident of the Event as also because they were sometimes plainly mistaken in the Events And from hence it was that they seldom Ventured to foretel any Events remotely distant but only what were nigh at hand and shortly to come to pass and therefore might be Probably Conjectured of from things then in being Notwithstanding which we acknowledge that there are some Few Instances of Predictions amongst the Pagans of the other Kind Such as that intimated by Cicero in his Book of Divination where he declareth the Doctrine of Diodorus concerning Necessity
and Perception being but Seeming and Relative But here lies one main difference betwixt Vnderstanding or Knowledge and Sense that whereas the Latter is Phantastical and Relative only the Former reacheth beyond Phancy and Appearance to the Absoluteness of Truth For as it hath been already declared whatsoever is clearly and distinctly Perceived in things Abstract and Vniversal by any one Rational Being in the whole world is not a Private thing and True to Himself only that perceived it but it is as some Stoicks have called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Publick Catholick and Vniversal Truth it obtains every where and as Empedocles sang of Natural Justice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is extended throughout the Vast Aether and through Infinite Light or Space and were there indeed Infinite Worlds all thickly peopled with Rational Animals it would be alike True to every one of them Nor is it Conceivable that Omnipotence it self could create any such Understanding Beings as could have Clear and Distinct Perceptions of the contrary to all that is Perceived by us no more than it could Do things Contradictious But in all Probability because Sense is indeed but Seeming Phantastical and Relative this is the Reason that some have been so prone and inclinable to suspect the like of Vnderstanding and all Mental Perception too that this also is but Seeming and Relative and that therefore mens Minds or Vnderstandings might have been so made by an Arbitrary Omnipotent Deity as clearly and distinctly to Perceive every thing that is False But if notwithstanding all that hath been said any will still sing over the Old Song again That all this which hath been hitherto declared by us is indeed True If our Humane Faculties be True or Rightly Made but we can go no further than our Faculties and whether these be True or no no man can ever be certain We have no other Reply to make but that this is an over Stiff and Heavy Adherence to a Prejudice of their own Minds that not only Sense but also Reason and Vnderstanding and all Humane Perception is meerly Seeming or Phantastical and Relative to Faculties only but not reaching to the Absoluteness of any Truth and that the Humane Mind hath no Criterion of Truth at all within it self Nevertheless it will probably be here further Objected That this is too great an Arrogance for Created Beings to pretend to an Absolute Certainty of any thing it being the Sole Priviledge and Prerogative of God Almighty to be Infallible who is therefore Styled in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Only Wise To which we briefly answer that the Deity is the first Original Fountain of Truth and Wisdom which is said to be The Brightness of the Everlasting Light the Vnspotted Mirrour of the Power of God and the Image of his Goodness The Divine Word is the Archetypal Pattern of all Truth it is Ignorant of Nothing and knoweth all things Infallibly But Created Beings have but a Derivative Participation hereof their Understandings being Obscure and they Erring in many things and being Ignorant of more And it seems to be no Derogation from Almighty God to suppose that Created Minds by a Participation of the Divine Mind should be able to know Certainly that Two and Two make Four that Equals added to Equals will make Equals that a Whole is greater than the Part and the Cause before the Effect and that nothing can be Made without a Cause and such like other Common Notions which are the Principles from whence all their knowledge is derived And indeed were Rational Creatures never able to be Certain of any such thing as this at all what would their Life be but a meer Dream or Shaddow and themselves but a Ridiculous and Pompous Piece of Phantastick Vanity Besides it is no way Congruous to think that God Almighty should make Rational Creatures so as to be in an utter Impossibility of ever attaining to any Certainty of his own Existence or of having more than an Hypothetical Assurance thereof If our Faculties be True which possibly may be otherwise then is there a God We shall conclude this Discourse against the Cartesian Scepticism with that of Origens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowledge is the only thing in the World which Creatures have that is in its own Nature firm they having here something of Certainty but no where else Wherefore we having now that which Archimedes required Some Firm Ground and Footing to stand upon such a Certainty of Truth in our Common Notions as that they cannot Possibly be False without which nothing at all could be proved by Reason we shall in the next place endeavour not to shake or dissettle any thing thereby which was the Undertaking of that Geometrician but to Confirm and Establish the Truth of God's Existence and that from the very Idea of him hitherto made good and defended against all the Assaults of Atheists It is well known that Cartesius hath lately made a Pretence to do this with Mathematical Evidence and Certainty and he dispatches the business briefly after this manner God or a Perfect Being includeth Necessary Existence in his very Idea and therefore he Is. But though the Inventor of this Argument or rather the Reviver of that which had been before used by some Scholasticks affirmeth it to be as Good a Demonstration for the Existence of a God from His Idea as that in Geometry for a Triangles having Three Angles equal to Two right is from the Idea of a Triangle yet nevertheless it is certain that by one means or other this Argument hath not hitherto proved so Fortunate and Successful there being many who cannot be made sensible of any Efficacy therein and not a few who Condemn it for a meer Sophism As for our selves we neither have any mind to quarrel with other mens Arguments Pro Deo nor yet would we be thought to lay stress in this Cause upon any thing which is not every way Solid and Substantial Wherefore we shall here endeavour to set down the Utmost that Possibly we can both Against this Argument and For it Impartially and Candidly and then when we have done leave the Intelligent Readers to make their own Judgement concerning the Same Against it in this manner First Because we can Frame an Idea in our own minds of an Absolutely Perfect Being including Necessary Existence in it it will not at all follow from thence that therefore there is such a Perfect Being Really Existing without our minds we being able to frame in our minds the Ideas of many other things that never were nor will be All that can be certainly inferred from the Idea of a Perfect Being seems to be this that if it contain nothing which is Contradictious to it then it is Not Impossible but that there might be such a Being actually Existing But the strength of this Argument not lying meerly in this that because we have an Idea of a Perfect
if no Body from Eternity was Ever able to Move it self and yet there must of necessity be some Active Cause of that Motion which is in the World since it could not Cause it self then is there unquestionably some Other Substance besides Body which having a Power of Moving Matter was the First Cause of Motion it Self being Vnmoved Moreover it is certain from hence also That there is another Species of Action distinct from Local Motion and such as is not Heterochinesie but Autochinesie or Self-Activity For since the Local Motion of Body is Essentially Heterochinesie not Caused by the Substance it self Moving but by something else Acting upon it that Action by which Local Motion is First Caused cannot be it self Local Motion but must be Autochinesie or Self-Activity That which is not a Passion from any other Agent but springs from the immediate Agent it self which Species of Action is called Cogitation All the Local Motion that is in the World was First Caused by some Cogitative or Thinking Being which not Acted upon by any thing without it nor at all Locally Moved but only Mentally is the Immoveable Mover of the Heaven or Vortices So that Cogitation is in Order of Nature before Local Motion and Incorporeal before Corporeal Substance the Former having a Natural Imperium upon the Latter And now have we not only Confuted the Ninth Atheistick Argument from Motion but also Demonstrated against the Democritick Atheists from their own Principle that there is an Incorporeal and Cogitative Substance the First Immoveable Mover of the Heavens and Vortices that is an Incorporeal Deity But the Democritick Atheist will yet make a futher Attempt to prove that there can be Nothing Self-Moving or Self-Active and that no Thinking Being could be a First Cause He laying his Foundation in this Principle That Nothing taketh its Beginning from it self but from the Action of some other Agent without it From whence he would infer that Cogitation it self is Heterochinesie the Passion of the Thinker and the Action of something without it no Cogitation ever rising up of it self without a Cause and that Cogitation is indeed Nothing but Local Motion or Mechanism and all Living Vnderstanding Beings Machines Moved from without and then make this Conclusion That therefore no Vnderstanding Being could possibly be a First Cause He further adding also that no Vnderstanding Being as such can be Perfectly Happy neither as the Deity is supposed to be because Dependent upon Something without it and this is the Tenth Atheistick Argumentation Where we shall First consider that which the Democritick Atheist makes his Fundamental Principle or Common Notion to disprove all Autochinesie or Self-Activity by That Nothing taketh Beginning from it self but from the Action of some other thing without it Which Axiom if it be Understood of Substantial Things then is it indeed acknowledged by us to be unquestionably true it being the same with this That No Substance which once was not could ever possibly cause it self or bring it self into Being but must take its Beginning from the Action of something else but then it will make Nothing at all against Theism As it is likewise True That No Action whatsoever and therefore no Cogitation taketh Beginning from it self or causeth it self to be but is always produced by some Substantial Agent but this will no way advantage the Atheist neither Wherefore if he would direct his Force against Theism he ought to understand this Proposition thus That No Action whatsoever taketh Beginning from the Immediate Agent which is the Subject of it but from the Action of some other thing without it or That Nothing can Move or Act otherwise then as it is Moved and Acted upon by something else But this is only to beg the Question or to Prove the thing in Dispute Identically That Nothing is Self-Active because Nothing can Act from it self Whereas it is in the mean time undeniably certain That there could not possibly be any Motion or Action at all in the Universe were there not something Self-Moving or Self-Active for as much as otherwise all that Motion or Action would be a Passion from Nothing and be Made without a Cause And whereas the Atheists would further prove that no Cogitation Taketh its Beginning from the Thinker but always from the Action of some other thing without it after this manner Because it is Conceivable why This Cogitation rather then that should start up at any time were there not some Cause for it without the Thinker Here in the first place we freely grant that our Humane Cogitations are indeed commonly Occasioned by the Incursions of Sensible Objects upon us as also that the Concatenations of those Thoughts and Phantasms in us which are distinguished from Sensations whether we be asleep or awake do many times depend upon Corporeal and Mechanical Causes in the Brain Notwithstanding which that all our Cogitations are Obtruded and Imposed upon us from without and that there is no Transition in our Thoughts at any time but such as had been before in Sense which the Democritick Atheist averrs this is a Thing which we absolutely deny For had we no Mastery at all over our Thoughts but they were all like Tennis Balls Bandied and Struck upon us as it were by Rackets from without then could we not steadily and constantly carry on any Designs and Purposes of Life But on the contrary that of Aristotle's is most true as will be elsewhere further Proved that Man and all Rational Beings are in some sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Principle of Actions subordinate to the Deity which they could not possibly be were they not also a Principle of Cogitations and had some Command over them but these were all as much determined by Causes without as the Motions of the Weathercock are The Rational Soul is it self an Active and Bubling Fountain of Thoughts that perpetual and Restless Desire which is as Natural and Essential to us as our very Life Continually Raising up and Protruding New and New Ones in us which are as it were Offered to us Besides which we have also a further Self Recollective Power and a Power of Determining and Fixing our Mind and Intention upon some certain Objects and of Ranging our Thoughts accordingly But the Atheist is here also to be taught yet a Further Lesson that an Absolutely Perfect Mind such as the Deity is supposed to be doth not as Aristotle writeth of it g d = fo Sometimes Vnderstand and sometime not Vnderstand it being Ignorant of Nothing nor Syllogizing about any thing but comprehending all Intelligibles with their Relations and Verities at once within it self and its Essence and Energie being the same Which Notion if it be above the Dull Capacity of Atheists who measure all Perfection by their own Scantling this is a thing that We cannot help But as for that Prodigious Paradox of Atheists that Cogitation it self is nothing but Local Motion or Mechanism we
that Arius was a German True and Genuine Platonist Whereas it is most certain from hence that Arius was no Platonist at all and that Petavius himself did not well understand the Platonick Doctrine Had Plato denied the Eternity of his Second Hypostasis called Nous he must have denied the Eternity of Wisedom and Vnderstanding it self this being to him that Wisedom by which God himself is Wise and whereby he made the World With which agreeth also Athanasius Our Lord is Wisedom and not Second to any other Wisedom and The Father of the Word is not himself Word and That was not Word and Wisedom which produced Word and Wisedom This in opposition to Arius who maintained Another Word and Wisedom Senior to that Word and Wisedom in Christ. These Platonists so far from denying the Eternity of the Word that they rather attributed too much to it in making it Self-begotten Wherefore Plato asserting the Eternity of his Second Hypostasis Nous or Logos and not of the World did thereby according to Athanasius his own Doctrine make it to be no Creature Page 575 Nor is there any force at all in that Testimony of Macrobius cited by Petavius to the contrary wherein the First Hypostasis is said to have Created Mind from it self and the Second to have Created Soul because these Ancient Pagans did not confine the word Creare to such a narrow sense as Christians commonly do but used it generally for all manner of Production Petavius his mistake chiefly from that Spurious Trinity of the latter Platonists whose Third God is by themselves called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Creature But this not the Doctrine of the Ancients Page 576 Nevertheless some more Reason to doubt whether Plato's Third Hypostasis were Eternal because in his Timaeus he Generates the Mundane Soul This Controversy decided by supposing a Double Psyche 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mundane and Supra-Mundane Soul the first of these called by Plotinus a Heavenly Venus and a Separate Soul Wherefore though the Lower Venus or Mundane Soul according to Plato made in Time together with the World yet the Higher Divine Soul or Heavenly Venus the Son of Chronus without a Mother his Third Hypostasis Eternal and without Beginning Page 576 577 This further Evident from hence Because Plato in his Epistle to Dionysius affirmeth as well of the Second and Third as of the First that in all those things that are Cognate to our Humane Soul or Creaturely there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothing like thereunto Page 577 Secondly The Three Hypostases of Plato's Trinity not onely all Eternall but also Necessarily Existent and Absolutely Unannihilable Nor could the First any more Exist without the Second and Third then the Sun without its Primary Light and Secundary Splendor These according to Plotinus the Three Principles of the Universe so that there could be neither More nor Fewer They also who called the Second Autopator signified thereby the Necessity of its Existence Page 577 578 Thirdly These Three Platonick Hypostases as Eternall and Necessary so likewise Universal or Comprehensive of the Whole World that is Infinite and Omnipotent Therefore called Principles and Causes and Opificers Though Nous or Mind vulgarly lookt upon as the Highest Principle of all things yet Plato set before it One Most Simple Good When Nous said by Plato to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Same Kind with the First Cause of all things this all one as if he had affirmed it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Co-Essential or Consubstantial with it Pag. 578 579 Plato's Third Hypostasis Psyche or the Superiour Mundane Soul called by him Zeus from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also the Cause and Fountain of Life and the Prince and King of all things And when said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Offspring of the Highest Mind thereby made Consubstantiall with it also So that Plato's whole Trinity Homoousian Page 579 Though by the Demiurgus or Opificer Plato commonly meant the Second Hypostasis Mind or Intellect yet Atticus Amelius Plotinus and others called the Third or the Higher Psyche also by that Name Wherefore according to the Genuine Platonick and Parmenidian Trinity all the Three Hypostases Joynt-Creatours of the whole World Thus Ficinus often and Proclus Porphyrius his Affirmation that the Deity according to Plato Extends to Three Hypostases Ibid. Certain therefore that Arius did not Platonize but rather Athanasius and the Nicene Fathers who notwithstanding made not Plato but the Scriptures their Foundation The Genuine Trinity of Plato and Parmenides a Middle betwixt that of Sabellius and that of Arius it being neither a Trinity of Words and Names as the Former nor an Heteroousious Trinity a Confused Jumble of God and Creature together but Homoousious and Homogeneall all Eternall Necessarily Existent Infinite or Omnipotent and Creatour Page 579 580 But that it may yet more fully appear how far the most refined Platonick and Parmenidian Trinity does either Agree or Disagree with the Scripture and Christian Doctrine Two things further to be Observed concerning it First that the Platonists Universally asserted an Essentiall Dependence of their Second and Third Hypostases upon the First as also a Graduall Subordination in them Thus Plotinus Chronos or the Second Hypostasis is in a Middle State betwixt his Father who is Greater and his Son who is Inferiour And that in this Eternal Generation or Emanation no Progress Vpward but all Downward and a Graduall Descent Page 580 581 More of the Dependence and Graduall Subordination of the Second and Third Hypostases of the Platonick Trinity to the First Each following Hypostasis called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that before it Philo's Offensive Expression That the Logos or Word is the Shadow of God This Gradation commonly Illustrated by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Effulgency or Out-shining Splendor of the Sun Page 581 582 The same further manifested from the severall Distinctive Characters given to each Hypostasis in the True Platonick or Parmenidian Trinity The First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One before all things The Second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One All things as to their Distinct Idea's The Third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Really producing All things The First Unity and Goodness Essentiall the Second Understanding and Wisedom the Third Self-Active Love and Power The First or Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Above Action The Second or Son the Demiurgus The Maker or contriving Architect of the World but an Immovable Nature The Third a Movable Deity and the Immediate Governour of the whole World Amelius his Distinction of them into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Page 582 583 The greatest Difficulty in the distinctive Characters of these Three Platonick Hypostases That Understanding Reason and Wisedom should be made
Plutarch in Herodotus as spoken Universally Plutarch himself restraining the Sense thereof to his Evill Principle Plato's ascribing the World to the Divine Goodness who therefore made all things most like Himself The true meaning of this Proverb That the Deity affecteth to Humble and Abase the Pride of men Lucretius his Hidden Force that hath as it were a Spite to all Overswelling Greatnesses could be no other then the Deity Those amongst Christians who make the worst Representation of God yet Phansy him Kind and Gracious to Themselves Page 659 660 True that Religion often expressed by the Fear of God Fear Prima Mensura Deitatis the First Impression that Religion makes upon men in this Lapsed State But this not a Fear of God as Mischievous and Hurtfull nor yet as a meer Arbitrary Being but as Just and an Impartiall Punisher of Wickedness Lucretius his acknowledging mens Fear of God to be conjoyned with a Conscience of Duty A Naturall Discrimination of Good and Evill with a Sense of an Impartiall Justice presiding over the World and both Rewarding and Punishing The Fear of God as either a Hurtfull or Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Being which must needs be joyned with something of Hatred not Religion but Superstition Fear Faith and Love Three Steps and Degrees of Religion to the Son of Sirach Faith better Defined in Scripture then by any Scholasticks God such a Being as if he were not Nothing more to be Wished for Page 660 661 The Reason why Atheists thus mistake the Notion of God as a Thing onely to be Feared and consequently Hated from their own Ill Nature and Vice The latter disposing them so much to think that there is no Difference of Good and Evill by Nature but onely by Law which Law Contrary to Nature as Restraint to Liberty Hence their denying all Naturall Charity and Acknowledging no Benevolence or Good Will but what arises from Imbecillity Indigency and Fear Their Friendship at best no other then Mercatura Utilitatum Wherefore if there were an Omnipotent Deity this according to the Atheistick Hypothesis could not have so much as that Spurious Love or Benevolence to any thing because standing in Need of Nothing and Devoid of Fear Thus Cotta in Cicero All this asserted also by a late Pretender to Politicks He adding thereunto that God hath no other Right of Commanding then his Irresistible Power nor men any Obligation to obey him but onely from their Imbecillity and Fear or because they cannot Resist him Thus do Atheists Transform the Deity into a Monstrous Shape an Omnipotent Being that hath neither Benevolence nor Justice in him This indeed a Mormo or Bugbear Page 661 662 But as this a false Representation of Theism so the Atheistick Scene of things most Uncomfortable Hopeless and Dismall upon severall Accounts True that no Spightfull Designs in Sensless Atoms in which Regard Plutarch Preferred even this Atheistick Hypothesis before that of an Omnipotent Mischievous Being However no Faith nor Hope neither in Sensless Atoms Epicurus his Confession that it was better to believe the Fable of the Gods then that Materiall Necessity of all things asserted by the other Atheistick Physiologers before himself But he not at all mending the Matter by his supposed Free Will The Panick Fear of the Epicureans of the Frame of Heaven's Cracking and this Compilement of Atoms being dissolved into a Chaos Atheists running from Fear plunge themselves into Fear Atheism rather then Theism from the Imposture of Fear Distrust and Disbelief of Good But Vice afterwards prevailing in them makes them Desire there should be No God Page 663 664 Thus the Atheists who derive the Origin of Religion from Fear First put an Affrightfull Vizard upon the Deity and then conclude it to be but a Mormo or Bugbear the Creature of Fear and Phancy More likely of the Two that the Opinion of a God sprung from Hope of Good then Fear of Evill but neither of these True it owing its Being to the Imposture of no Passion but supported by the Strongest and clearest Reason Nevertheless a Naturall Prolepsis or Anticipation of a God also in mens Minds Preventing Reason This called by Plato and Aristotle a Vaticination Page 664 665 The Second Atheistick Pretence to salve the Phaenomenon of Religion from the Ignorance of Causes and mens innate â—uriosity Vpon which Account the Deity said by them to be nothing but an Asylum of Ignorance or the Sanctuary of Fools next to be Confuted Page 665 That the Atheists both Modern and Ancient here commonly Complicate these Two together Fear and Ignorance of Causes making Theism the Spawn of both as the Fear of Children in the Dark raises Bugbears and Spectres Epicurus his Reason why he took such great pains in the Study of Physiology that by finding out the Naturall Causes of things he might free men from the Terrour of a God that would otherwise Assault their Minds ibid. The Atheists thus Dabbling in Physiology and finding out Materiall Causes for some of those Phaenomena which the unskilfull Vulgar salve onely from a Deity therefore Confident that Religion had no other Originall then this Ignorance of Causes as also that Nature or Matter does all things alone without a God But we shall make it manifest That Philosophy and the True Knowledge of Causes Lead to a Deity and that Atheism from Ignorance of Causes and want of Philosophy Page 665 666 For First No Atheist who derives all from Senslesse Matter can possibly assign any Cause of Himself his own Soul or Mind it being Impossible that Life and Sense should be Naturally produced from what Dead and Sensless or from Magnitudes Figures Sites and Motions An Atheistick Objection nothing to the purpose That Laughing and Crying things are made out of Not-Laughing and Crying Principles because these result from the Mechanism of the Body The Hylozoists never able neither to produce Animal Sense and Consciousness out of what Sensless and Inconscious The Atheists supposing their own Life and Understanding and all the Wisedom that is in the World to have sprung meerly from Sensless Matter and Fortuitous Motion Grossely Ignorant of Causes The Philosophy of Our Selves and True Knowledge of the Cause of our own Soul and Mind brings to God Page 666 667 Again Atheists Ignorant of the Cause of Motion by which they suppose all things done this Phaenomenon being no way Salvable according to their Principles First undeniably certain That Motion not Essential to all Body or Matter as such because then there could have been no Mundane System no Sun Moon Earth c. All things being continually Torn in Pieces and Nothing Cohering Certain also That Dead and Sensless Matter such as that of Anaximander Democâ—itus and Epicurus cannot Move it self Spontaneously by Will or Appetite The Hylozoists further considered elsewhere Democritus could assign no other Cause of Motion then this That one Body moved another from Eternity Infinitely without any First Cause or Mover Thus also a Modern Writer To
Parallell with that of its Annual Cartesius his Confession that according to Mechanick Principles these should continually come nearer and nearer together which since they have not done Finall or Mentall Causality here to be acknowledged and because it was Best it should be so But the Greatest Phaenomenon of this kind the Formation and Organization of Animals which these Mechanists never able to give any Account of Of that Posthumous Piece of Cartesius De la Formation Du Foetus Page 684 685 Pretended That to assign Finall Causes is to presume our selves to be as Wise as God Almighty or to be Privy to his Counsells But the Question not Whether we can always reach to the Ends of God Almighty or know what is Absolutely Best in every Case and accordingly Conclude things therefore to be so but Whether any thing in the World be made for Ends otherwise then would have resulted from the Fortuitous Motion of Matter No Presumption nor Intrusion into the Secrets of God Almighty to say that Eyes were made by him Intentionally for the sake of Seeing Anaxagoras his Absurd Aphorism That Man was therefore the most Solert of all Animals because he Chanced to have Hands Far more Reasonable to think as Aristotle concludeth That because Man was the wisest of all Animals therefore he had Hands given him More proper to give Pipes to one that hath Musicall skill then upon him that hath Pipes to bestow Musicall skill Page 685 In the Last place The Mechanick Theists Pretend and that with some more plausibility That it is below the Dignity of God Almighty to perform all those Mean and Triviall Offices of Nature Himself Immediatly This Answered again That though the Divine Wisedom it Self Contrived the System of the whole for Ends yet is there an Artificial Nature under him as his Inferiour Minister and Executioner Proclus his Description hereof This Nature to Proclus a God or Goddess but onely as the Bodies of the Animated Stars were called Gods because the Statues of the Gods Page 685 686 That we cannot otherwise Conclude concerning these Mechanick Theists who derive all things in the Mundane System from the Necessary Motions of Sensless Matter without the Direction of any Mind or God but that they are Imperfect Theists or have a certain Tang of the Atheistick Enthusiasm the Spirit of Infidelity hanging about them Page 687 But these Mechanick Theists Counterbalanc'd by another sort of Atheists not Fortuitous nor Mechanicall namely the Hylozoists who acknowledge the works of Nature to be the works of Understanding and deride Democritus his Rough and Hooky Atoms devoid of Life they attributing Life to all Matter as such and concluding the Vulgar Notion of a God to be but an Inadequate Conception of Matter its Energetick Nature being taken alone by it self as a Compleat Substance These Hylozoists never able to satisfy that Phaenomenon of the One Agreeing and Conspiring Harmony throughout the whole Universe every Atom of Matter according to them being a Distinct Percipient and these Vnable to confer Notions with One another Page 687 Nor can the other Cosmo-Plastick Atheists to whom the whole World but one Huge Plant or Vegetable Endued with a Spermatick Artificiall Nature Orderly disposing the whole without Sense or Understanding doe any thing towards the Salving of This or any other Phaenomena it being Impossible That there should be any such Regular Nature otherwise then as Derived from and Depending on a Perfect Mind ibid. Besides these Three Phaenomena of Cogitation Motion and the Artificial Frame of things with the Conspiring Harmony of the Whole no way Salvable by Atheists Here further Added That those who asserted the Novity of the World could not possibly give an Account neither of the First Beginning of Men and other Animals not now Generated out of Putrefaction Aristotle sometimes doubtfull and staggering concerning the World's Eternity Men and all other Animals not produced at first by Chance either as Worms out of Putrefaction or out of Eggs or Wombs growing out of the Earth Because no Reason to be given why Chance should not as well produce the same out of the Earth still Epicurus his vain Pretence that the Earth as a Child-bearing Woman was now grown Effete and Barren Moreover Men and Animals whether first Generated out of Putrefaction or excluded out of Wombs or Egge-shells supposed by these Atheists themselves to have been produced in a Tender Infant-like State so that they could neither supply themselves with nourishment nor defend themselves from harms A Dream of Epicurus That the Earth sent forth streams of Milk after those her New-born Infants and Nurslings Confuted by Critolaus in Philo. Another Precarious Supposition or Figment of Epicurus That then no immoderate Heats nor Colds nor any blustering Winds Anaximander's way of Salving this Difficulty That Men were first generated and nourished in the bellies of Fishes till able to shift for themselves and then disgorged upon dry land Atheists swallow any thing rather then a God Page 688 689 Wherefore here being Dignus Vindice Nodus a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reasonably introduced in the Mosaick Cabbala to solve the same It appearing from all Circumstances put together that this whole Phaenomenon surpasses not onely the Mechanick but also the Plastick Powers there being much of Discretion therein However not denied but that the Ministery of Spirits Created before Man and other Terrestrial Animals might be here made use of As in Plato after the Creation of Immortal Souls by the Supreme God the Framing of Mortal Bodies is committed to Junior Gods Page 689 690 Furthermore Atheists no more able to Salve that ordinary Phaenomenon of the Conservation of Species by the Difference of Sexes and a due Proportion of Number kept up between Males and Females Here a Providence also Superiour as well to the Plastick as Mechanick Nature ibid. Lastly Other Phaenomena as Real though not Physical which Atheists cannot possibly Salve and therefore do commonly Deny as of Natural Justice or Honesty and Obligation the Foundation of Politicks and the Mathematicks of Religion And of Liberty of Will not onely That of Fortuitous Self-determination when an equal Eligibility of Objects but also That which makes men deserve Commendation and Blame These not commonly distinguished as they Ought Epicurus his endeavour to Salve Liberty of Will from Atoms Declining Vncertainly from the Perpendicular meer Madness and Frenzy Page 690 691 And now have we already Preventively Confuted the Third Atheistick Pretence to Salve the Phaenomenon of Theism from the Fiction and Imposture of Politicians we having proved That Philosophy and the true Knowledg of Causes inferre the Existence of a God Nevertheless this to be here further Answered Page 691 That States-men and Politicians could not have made such use of Religion as sometimes they have done had it been a meer Cheat and Figment of their own Civil Sovereigns in all the distant places of the World could not have so universally conspired in this one
First Principle or Self-existent Vnmade thing That according to this Notion of the word God there can be no such thing as an Atheist no man beâ—ng able to perswade himself that all things sprung from Nothing 6. In order to the more punctual Declaration of the Divine Idea the Opinion of those taken notice of who suppose Two Self-existent Vnmade Principles God and Matter and so God not to be the Sole but only the Chief Principle 7. That these are but Imperfect and Mistaken Theists Their Idea of God declared with its Defectivenâ—ss A Latitude in Theism None to be condemned for Absolute Atheists but â—uch as deny an Eternal Vnmade Mind ruling over the matter 8. The most Compendious Idea of God An Absolutely Perfect Being â—hat this includes not only Conscious Intellectuality and Necessary Existence but also Omni-causality Omnipotence and Infinite Power and therâ—fore God the sole Principle of all and Cause of Matter The true Notion of Infinite Power Pagans acknowledged the Divine Omnipotence And that the Atheists supposed Infinite Power to be included in the Idea of God proved from Lucretius 9. That absolute Perfection implies something more than Power and Knowledge A Vaticination in mens minds of a Higher Good than either That God is Better than Knowledge according to Aristotle and that there is Morality in the Nature of God wherein his chief Happiness consisâ—eth This borrowed from Plato who makes the Highest Perfection and Supreme Deity to be Goodness it self above Knowledge and Intellect God and the Supreme Good according to the Scripture Love God no soft or fond Love but an Impartial Law and the Measure of all things That the Atheists supposed Goodness also to be included in the Idea of God The Idea of God more Explicate and Vnfolded A Being absolutely Perfect Infinitely Good Wise and Powerful Necessarily Existent and not only the Framer of the World but also the Cause of all things 10. That this Idea of God Essentially includes Unity or Onelyness in it since there can be but One Supreme One Cause of all things One Omnipotent and One Infinitely Perfect This Vnity or Onelyness of the Deity supposed also by Epicurus and Lucretius who professedly denyed a God according to this Idea 11. The Grand Prejudice against the Naturality of this Idea of God as it Essentially includes Vnity and Solitariety from the Polytheism of all Nations formerly besides the Jewes and of all the wisest men and Philosophers from whence it is inferred that this Idea of God is but Artificial and owes its Original to Laws and Institution An Enquiry to be made concerning the true sence of the Pagan Polytheism That the Objectors take it for granted that the Pagan Polytheists universally asserted Many Self-existent Intellectual Beings and Independent Deities as so many Partial Causes of the World 12. First the Irrationality of this Opinion and its manifest Repugnancy to the Phaenomena which render it less probable to have been the Belief of all the Pagan Polytheists 13. Secondly That no such thing at all appears as that ever any Intelligent Pagans asserted a Multitude of Eternal Vnmade Independent Deities The Hesiodian Gods The Valentinian Aeons The nearest Approach made thereunto by the Manichean Good and Evil Gods This Doctrine not generally asserted by the Greek Philosophers as Plutarch affirmeth Questioned whether the Persian Evil Daemon or Arimanius were a Self-existent Principle Essentially Evil. Aristotle's Confutation and Explosion of Many Principles or Independent Deities Faustus the Manichean his Conceit that the Jews and Christians Paganized in the Opinion of Monarchy with St. Austin's Judgment concerning the Pagans thereupon 14. Concluded that the Pagan Polytheism must be understood according to another Equivocation in the word Gods as used for Created Intellectual Beings superiour to Men that ought to be Religiously Worshipped That the Pagans held both Many Gods and One God as Onatus the Pythagorean declares himself in different Sences Many Inferiour Deities Suberdinate to One Supreme 15. Further Evidence of this that the Intelligent Pagan Polytheists held only a Plurality of Inferiour Deities Subordinate to one Supreme First because after the Emersion of Christianity and its contest with Paganism when occasion was offered not only no Pagan asserted a Multiplicity of Independent Deities but also all Vniversally disclaim'd it and professed to acknowledge One Supreme God 16. That this was no Refinement or Interpolation of Paganism as might possibly be suspected but that the Doctrine of the most Ancient Pagan Theologers and greatest Promoters of Polytheism was agreeable hereunto which will be proved not from suspected Writings as of Trismegist and the Sibyls but such as are Indubitate First That Zoroaster the chief Promoter of Polytheism in the Eastern Parts acknowledged one Supreme Deity the Maker of the World proved from Eubulus in Porphyry besides his own words cited by Eusebius 17. That Orpheus commonly called by the Greeks The Theologer and the Father of the Grecanick Polytheism clearly asserted one Supreme Deity proved by his own words out of Pagan Records 18. That the Aegyptians themselves the most Polytheistical of all Nations had an acknowledgement amongst them of one Supreme Deity 19. That the Poets who were the greatest Depravers of the Pagan Theology and by their Fables of the Gods made it look more Aristocratically did themselves notwithstanding acknowledge a Monarchy one Prince and Father of Gods That famous Passage of Sophocles not to be suspected though not found in any of these Tragedies now extant 20. That all the Pagan Philosophers who were Theists universally asserted a Mundane Monarchy Pythagoras as much a Polytheist as any and yet his First Principle of Things as well as Numbers a Monad or Unity Anaxagoras his One Mind ordering all things for Good Xenophanes his One and All and his One God the Greatest among the Gods 21. Parmenides his Supreme God One Immoveable Empedocles his both Many Gods Junior to Friendship and Contention and his One God called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Senior to them Zeno Eleates his Demonstration of One God in Aristotle 22. Philolaus his Prince and Governour of all God always One Euclides Megarensis his God called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One the Very Good Timaeus Locrus his Mind and Good above the Soul of the World Antisthenes his One Natural God Onatus his Corypheus 23. Generally believed and true that Socrates acknowledged One Supreme God but that he disclaimed all the Inferiour Gods of the Pagans a Vulgar Error Plato also a Polytheist and that Passage which some lay so great stress upon That he was serious when he began his Epistles with God but when with Gods jocular Spurious and Counterfeit and yet he was notwithstanding an undoubted Monotheist also in another sence an Asserter of One God over all of a Maker of the World of a First God of a Greatest of the Gods The First Hypostasis of the Platonick Trinity properly the King of all things for whose sake are all things Tâ—e Father of the Cause and
Prince of the World that is of the Eternal Intellect or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 24. Aristotle an Acknowledger of Many Gods he accounting the Stars such and yet an express Asserter of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Prince One Immoveable Mover 25. Cleanthes and Chrysippus Stoicks though they filled the whole Heaven Earth Air and Sea with Gods yet notwithstanding they acknowledged only One Gâ—d Immortal Jupiter all the rest being consumed into him in the Successive Conflagrations and afterwards made anew by him Cleanthes his excellent and devout Hymn to the Supreme God 26. Eâ—dless to cite all the Passages of the later Pagan Writers and Polytheists in which one Supreme God is asserted Excellent Discourses in some of them concerning the Deity particularly Plotinus Who though he derived all things even Matter it self from one Supreme Deity yet was a Contender for Many Gods 27. This not only the Opinion of Philosophers and Learned men but also the General Belief of the Pagan Vulgar that there was One Supreme God proved from Maximus Tyrius The Romans Deus Optimus Maximus The Paâ—ans when most serious spake of God singularly Kyrie Eleeson part of the Pagans Litany to the Supreme God The more civilizâ—d Pagans at this very day acknowledge one Supreme Deity the Maker of the World 28. Plutarch's Testimony that notwithstanding the variety of Paganick Religions and the different Names of Gods used in them yet One Reason Mind or Providence ordering all things and its Inferiour Ministers were alike every where Worshipped 29. Plain that the Pagan Theists must needs acknowledge One Supreme Deity because they generally believed the whole World to be One Animal gâ—vernâ—d by One Soul Some Pagans made this Soul of the World their Supreme God others an Abstract Mind Superiour to it 30. The Hebrew Doctors generally of this Perswasion that the Pagans worshipped one Supreme God and that all their other Gods were but Mediatours betwixt him and men 31. Lastly this confirmed from Scripture The Pagans Knew God Aratus his Jupiter and the Athenians Unknown God the True God 32. In order to a fuller Explication of the Pagan Theology and shewing the Occasion of its being misunderstood Three Heads requisite to be insisted on First that the Pagans worshipped One Supreme God under Many Names Secondly that besides this one God they worshipped also Many Gods which were indeed Inferiour Deities Subordinate to him Thirdly that they worshipped both the Supreme and inferiour Gods in Images Statues and Symbols sometimes abusively called also Gods First that the Supreme God amongst the Pagans was Polyonymous and worshipped under several Personal Names according to his several Attributes and the Manifestations of them his Gifts and Effects in the World 33. That upon the same accompt Things not Substantial were Personated and Deified by the Pagans and worshipped as so many several Names or Notions of One God 34. That as the whole Corporeal World Animated was supposed by some of the Pagans to be the Supreme God so he was worshipped in the several Parts and Members of it having Personal Names bestowed upon them as it were by Parcels and Piece-meal or by so many Inadequate Conceptions That some of the Pagans made the Corporeal World the Temple of God only but others the Body of God 35. The Second Head proposed that besides the One Supreme God under several Names the Pagans acknowledged and Worshipped also Many Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Made Gods Created intellectual Beings Superiour to Men. 36. The Pythagorick or Platonick Trinity of Divine Hypostases And the Higher of the Inferiour Deities according to this Hypothesis Nous Psyche and the whole Corporeal World with particular Noes and Henades 37. The other Inferiour Deities acknowledged as well by the Vulgar as Philosophers of Three Sorts First the Sun Moon and Stars and other greater Parts of the Vniverse Animated called Sensible Gods 38. Secondly their Inferiour Deities Invisible Ethereal and Aereal Animals called Daemons These appointed by the Supreme Deity to preside over Kingdoms Cities Places Persons and Things 39. The Last sort of the Pagan Inferiour Deities Heroes and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Men-gods Euemerus taxed by Plutarch for making all the Pagan Gods nothing but Dead Men. 40. The Third general Head proposed That the Pagans worshipped both the Supreme and Inferiour Gods in Images Statues and Symbols That first of all before Images and Temples Rude Stones and Pillars without Sculpture were erected for Religious Monuments and called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bethels 41. That afterwards Images Statues and Symbols were used and housed in Temples These placed in the West-end of the Temples to face the East so that the Pagans entering worshipped towards the West One probable Occasion of the Ancient Christians Praying towards the East The Golden Calf made for a Symbolick Presence of the God of Israel 42. All the parts of the entire Pagan Religion represented together at once in Plato 43. That some late Writers not well understanding the Sence of Pagans have confounded all their Theology by supposing them to Worship the Inanimate parts of the World as such for Gods therefore distinguishing betwixt their Animal and their Natural Gods That no Corporeal thing was worshipped by the Pagans otherwise than either as being it self Animated with a Particular Soul of its own or as being part of the whole Animated World or as having Daemons presiding over it to whom the Worship was properly directed or Lastly as being Images or Symbols of Divine Things 44. That though the Egyptians be said to have Worshipped Brute Animals and were generally therefore condemned by the other Pagans yet the wiser of them used them only as Hieroglyphicks and Symbols 45. That the Pagans worshipped not only the Supreme God but also the Inferiour Deities by Material Sacrifices Sacrifices or Fire-offerings in their First and General Notion nothing else but Gifts and Signs of Gratitude and Appendices of Prayer But that Animal Sacrifices had afterwards a Particular Notion also of Expiation fastned on them whether by Divine Direction or Humane Agreement left undetermined 46. The Pagans Apology for the Three forementioned Things First for Worshipping one Supreme one God under Many Personal Names and that not only according to his several Attributes but also his several Manifestations Gifts and Effects in the Visible World With an Excuse for those Corporeal Theists who Worshipped the whole Animated World as the Supreme God and the several Parts of it under Personal Names as Living Members of him 47. Their Apology for Worshipping besides the One Supreme God Many Inferiour Deities That they Worshipping them only as Inferiour could not therefore be guilty of giving them that Honour which was proper to the Supreme That they Honour'd the Supreme God Incomparably above all That they put a Difference in their Sacrifices and that Material Sacrifices were not the proper Worship of the Supreme God but rather below him 48. Several Reasons of the Pagans for giving Religious Worship